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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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CUBA 

OLD AND NEW 




TOWER OF LA FUERZA 

Havana 



CUBA 

OLD AND NEW 



BY It^ 

ALBERT G/kOBINSON 

(A.G.R.) 

AUTHOR OF "CUBA AND THE INTERVENTION,' 

"THE PHILIPPINES: THE WAR AND THE PEOPLE,' 

"THE PORTO RICO OF TODAY," ETC., ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
BY THE AUTHOR 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 3OTH STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 

1915 






COPYRIGHT, I9IS 
Y LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 



QEC2 1915 

©CLA414875 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Old Cuba i 

II. New Cuba 19 

III. The Country 37 

IV. The Old Havana 54 

V. The New Havana 70 

VI. Around the Island 87 

VII. Around the Island (Continued) . . . 105 

VIII. The United States and Cuba . . . 122 

IX. Cuba's Revolutions 141 

X. Independence 162 

XI. Filibustering 184 

XII. The Story of Sugar 203 

XIII. Various Products and Industries . . 218 

XIV. Politics, Government, and Commerce . 236 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Tower of La Fuerza, Havana Frontispiece u^" 

The Morro, Havana Facing page 6 * 

A Planter's Home, Havana Province 31 t 

Iron Grille Gateway, El Vedado, suburb of Havana . 34 
Watering Herd of Cattle, Luyano River, near Havana 47 

Royal Palms 50 ^ 

Custom House, Havana 63 ^ 

Balconies, Old Havana 66 v 

Street in Havana 66 \ 

Street and Church of the Angels, Havana .... 77 1/ 

A Residence in El Vedado 84 

The Volante (now quite rare) 91 

A Village Street, Calvario, Havana Province . . . 102 ' 

Street and Church, Camaguey 109 

Cobre, Oriente Province 116 

Hoisting the Cuban Flag over the Palace, May 20, 1902 137 

A Spanish Block House 152 

Along the Harbor Wall, Havana 173 

Country Road, Havana Province .180 

Street in Camaguey 221 

Palm-Thatched Roofs 228 

A Peasant's Home . 228 ' 




CUBA 

OLD AND NEW 



OLD CUBA 

HRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was a man of 
lively imagination. Had he been an ordi- 
nary, prosaic and plodding individual, he 
would have stayed at home combing wool as did his 
prosaic and plodding ancestors for several genera- 
tions. At the age of fourteen he went to sea and 
soon developed an active curiosity about regions 
then unknown but believed to exist. There was 
even then some knowledge of western Asia, and 
even of China as approached from the west. Two 
and two being properly put together, the result was 
a reasonable argument that China and India could 
be reached from the other direction, that is, by going 
westward instead of eastward. 

In the early autumn of the year 1492, Columbus 
was busy discovering islands in the Caribbean Sea 
region, and, incidentally, seeking for the richest of 
the group. From dwellers on other islands, he 
heard of one, called Cubanacan, larger and richer 
than any that he had then discovered. A mixture 



2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

of those tales with his own vivid imagination pro- 
duced a belief in a country of wide extent, vastly 
rich in gold and gems, and already a centre of an 
extensive commerce. Cruising in search of what he 
believed to be the eastern coast of Asia, he sighted 
the shore of Cuba on the morning of October 28, 
1492. His journal, under date of October 24, states: 
"At midnight I tripped my anchors off this Cabo 
del Isleo de Isabella, where I was pitched to go to 
the island of Cuba, which I learn from these people 
is very large and magnificent, and there are gold 
and spices in it, and large ships and merchants. 
And so I think it must be the island of Cipango 
(Japan), of which they tell such wonders." The 
record, under date of Sunday, 28th of October, 
states: "Continued for the nearest land of Cuba, 
and entered a beautiful estuary, clear of rocks and 
other dangers. The mouth of the estuary had 
twelve fathoms depth, and it was wide enough for 
a ship to work into." Students have disagreed 
regarding the first Cuban port entered by Columbus. 
There is general acceptance of October 28 as the date 
of arrival. Some contend that on that day he en- 
tered Nipe Bay, while others, and apparently the 
greater number, locate the spot somewhat to the 
west of Nuevitas. Wherever he first landed on it, 
there is agreement that he called the island Juana, 
in honor of Prince Juan, taking possession "in the 
name of Christ, Our Lady, and the reigning Sov- 
ereigns of Spain." 



OLD CUBA 3 

His record of the landing place is obscure. It 
is known that he sailed some leagues beyond it, to 
the westward. While on board his caravel, on his 
homeward voyage, he wrote a letter to his friend, 
Don Rafael Sanchez, "Treasurer of their most Serene 
Highnesses," in which the experience is described. 
The original letter is lost, but it was translated into 
Latin and published in Barcelona in the following 
year, 1493. While the Latin form is variously 
translated into English, the general tenor of all is 
the same. He wrote: "When I arrived at Juana 
(Cuba), I sailed along the coast to the west, dis- 
covering so great an extent of land that I could not 
imagine it to be an island, but the continent of 
Cathay. I did not, however, discover upon the coast 
any large cities, all we saw being a few villages and 
farms, with the inhabitants of which we could not 
obtain any communication, they flying at our ap- 
proach. I continued my course, still expecting to 
meet with some town or city, but after having gone 
a great distance and not meeting with any, and 
finding myself proceeding toward the north, which 
I was desirous to avoid on account of the cold, and, 
moreover, meeting with a contrary wind, I deter- 
mined to return to the south, and therefore put 
about and sailed back to a harbor which I had 
before observed." That the adhial landing was at 
or near the present port of Nuevitas seems to be 
generally accepted. 

Columbus appears to have been greatly impressed 



4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

by the beauty of the island. In his Life of Columbus, 
Washington Irving says: "From his continual re- 
marks on the beauty of scenery, and from his evident 
delight in rural sounds and objects, he appears to 
have been extremely open to those happy influences, 
exercised over some spirits, by the graces and won- 
ders of nature. He gives utterance to these feelings 
with characteristic enthusiasm, and at the same 
time with the artlessness and simplicity of diction 
of a child. When speaking of some lovely scene 
among the groves, or along the flowery shores of 
these favored islands, he says, "One could live there 
forever." Cuba broke upon him like an elysium. 
"It is the most beautiful island," he says, "that 
ever eyes beheld, full of excellent ports and pro- 
found rivers." A little discount must be made on 
such a statement. Granting all that is to be said 
of Cuba's scenic charms, some allowance is to be 
made for two influences. One is Don Cristobal's 
exuberance, and the other is the fact that when one 
has been knocking about, as he had been, for nearly 
three months on the open sea and among low-lying 
and sandy islands and keys, any land, verdure clad 
and hilly, is a picture of Paradise. Many people need 
only two or three days at sea to reach a similar 
conclusion. In his letter to Luis de Santangel, 
Columbus says: "All these countries are of sur- 
passing excellence, and in particular Juana (Cuba), 
which contains abundance of fine harbors, excelling 
any in Christendom, as also many large and beautiful 



OLD CUBA 5 

rivers. The land is high, and exhibits chains of tall 
mountains which seem to reach to the skies and 
surpass beyond comparison the isle of Cetrefrey 
(Sicily). These display themselves in all manner of 
beautiful shapes. They are accessible in every part, 
and covered with a vast variety of lofty trees which 
it appears to me never lose their foliage. Some were 
covered with blossoms, some with fruit, and others 
in different stages according to their nature. There 
are palm trees of six or eight sorts. Beautiful 
forests of pines are likewise found, and fields of 
vast extent. Here are also honey and fruits of 
thousand sorts, and birds of every variety." 

Having landed at this indefinitely located point, 
Columbus, believing that he had reached the region 
he was seeking, despatched messengers to the in- 
terior to open communication with some high official 
of Cathay, in which country he supposed himself 
to be, the idea of Cipango apparently having been 
abandoned. "Many at the present day," says 
Washington Irving, "will smile at this embassy 
to a naked savage chieftain in the interior of Cuba, 
in mistake for an Asiatic monarch; but such was the 
singular nature of this voyage, a continual series 
of golden dreams, and all interpreted by the delud- 
ing volume of Marco Polo." But the messengers 
went on their journey, and proceeded inland some 
thirty or forty miles. There they came upon a 
village of about fifty huts and a population of about 
a thousand. They were able to communicate only 



6 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

by signs, and it is quite certain that the replies of 
the natives were as little understood by the messen- 
gers as the questions were by the natives. The 
messengers sought something about which the natives 
knew little or nothing. The communications were 
interpreted through the medium of imagination and 
desire. Nothing accomplished, the commission re- 
turned and made its disappointing report. Wash- 
ington Irving thus describes the further proceedings: 
"The report of the envoys put an end to the many 
splendid fancies of Columbus, about the barbaric 
prince and his capital. He was cruising, however, 
in a region of enchantment, in which pleasing chime- 
ras started up at every step, exercising by turns a 
power over his imagination. During the absence 
of the emissaries, the Indians had informed him, by 
signs, of a place to the eastward, where the people 
collected gold along the river banks by torchlight 
and afterward wrought it into bars with hammers. 
In speaking of this place they again used the words 
Babeque and Bohio, which he, as usual, supposed 
to be the proper names of islands or countries. 
His great object was to arrive at some opulent and 
civilized country of the East, with which he might 
establish commercial relations, and whence he might 
carry home a quantity of oriental merchandise as a 
rich trophy of his discovery. The season was ad- 
vancing; the cool nights gave hints of approaching 
winter; he resolved, therefore, not to proceed 
farther to the north, nor to linger about uncivilized 



OLD CUBA 7 

places which, at present, he had not the means of 
colonizing, but to return to the east-south-east, in 
quest of Babeque, which he trusted might prove 
some rich and civilized island on the coast of Asia." 
And so he sailed away for Hispaniola (Santo Do- 
mingo) which appears to have become, a little later, 
his favorite West Indian resort. 

He began his eastward journey on November 12th. 
As he did not reach Cape Maisi, the eastern point 
of the island, until December 5th, he must have made 
frequent stops to examine the shore. Referring to 
one of the ports that he entered he wrote to the 
Spanish Sovereigns thus: "The amenity of this 
river, and the clearness of the water, through which 
the sand at the bottom may be seen; the multitude 
of palm trees of various forms, the highest and most 
beautiful that I have met with, and an infinity of 
other great. and green trees; the birds in rich plu- 
mage and the verdure of the fields, render this country 
of such marvellous beauty that it surpasses all others 
in charms and graces, as the day doth the night in 
lustre. For which reason I often say to my people 
that, much as I endeavor to give a complete account 
of it to your majesties, my tongue cannot express 
the whole truth, nor my pen describe it; and I have 
been so overwhelmed at the sight of so much beauty 
that I have not known how to relate it." 

Columbus made no settlement in Cuba; his part 
extends only to the discovery. On his second expe- 
dition, in the spring of 1494, he visited and ex- 



8 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

plored the south coast as far west as the Isle of 
Pines, to which he gave the name La Evangelista. 
He touched the south coast again on his fourth 
voyage, in 1503. On his way eastward from his 
voyage of discovery on the coast of Central America, 
he missed his direcl: course to Hispaniola, and came 
upon the Cuban shore near Cape Cruz. He was 
detained there for some days by heavy weather and 
adverse winds, and sailed thence to his unhappy 
experience in Jamaica. The work of colonizing 
remained for others. Columbus died in the belief 
that he had discovered a part of the continent of 
Asia. That Cuba was only an island was determined 
by Sebastian de Ocampo who sailed around it in 
1508. Baron Humboldt, who visited Cuba in 1801 
and again in 1825, and wrote learnedly about it, 
states that "the first settlement of the whites occurred 
in 1511, when Velasquez, under orders from Don 
Diego Columbus, landed at Puerto de las Palmas, 
near Cape Maisi, and subjugated the Cacique Hatuey 
who had fled from Haiti to the eastern end of Cuba, 
where he became the chief of a confederation of 
several smaller native princes." This was, in facl, 
a military expedition composed of three hundred 
soldiers, with four vessels. 

Hatuey deserves attention. His name is not in- 
frequently seen in Cuba today, but it is probable 
that few visitors know whether it refers to a man, a 
bird, or a vegetable. He was the first Cuban hero 
of whom we have record, although the entire reli- 



OLD CUBA 9 

ability of the record is somewhat doubtful. The 
notable historian of this period is Bartolome Las 
Casas, Bishop of Chiapa. He appears to have been 
a man of great worth, a very tender heart, and an 
imagination fully as vivid as that of Columbus. 
His sympathies were aroused by the tales of the 
exceeding brutality of many of the early Spanish 
voyagers in their relations with the natives. He 
went out to see for himself, and wrote voluminously 
of his experiences. He also wrote with exceeding 
frankness, and often with great indignation. He writes 
about Hatuey. The inference is that this Cacique, 
or chieftain, fled from Haiti to escape Spanish brutal- 
ity, and even in fear of his life. There are other 
translations of Las Casas, but for this purpose choice 
has been made of one published in London about 
the year 1699. It is given thus: 

"There happened divers things in this island (Cuba) 
that deserve to be remarked. A rich and potent 
Cacique named Hatuey was retired into the Isle 
of Cuba to avoid that Slavery and Death with which 
the Spaniards menaced him; and being informed 
that his persecutors were upon the point of landing 
in this Island, he assembled all his Subjects and 
Domestics together, and made a Speech unto them 
after this manner. "You know, (said he) the Re- 
port is spread abroad that the Spaniards are ready 
to invade this Island, and you are not ignorant of 
the ill usage our Friends and Countrymen have met 
with at their hands, and the cruelties they have 



io CUBA OLD AND NEW 

committed at Haiti (so Hispaniola is called in their 
Language). They are now coming hither with a 
design to exercise the same Outrages and Persecu- 
tions upon us. Are you ignorant (says he) of the 
ill Intentions of the People of whom I am speaking? 
We know not (say they all with one voice) upon 
what account they come hither, but we know they 
are a very wicked and cruel People. I'll tell you 
then (replied the Cacique) that these Europeans 
worship a very covetous sort of God, so that it is 
difficult to satisfy him; to perform the Worship they 
render to this Idol, they will exadl immense Treasures 
of us, and will use their utmost endeavors to reduce 
us to a miserable state of Slavery, or else put us to 
death." The historian leaves to the imagination 
and credulity of his readers the task of determining 
just where and how he got the full details of this 
speech and of the subsequent proceedings. The 
report of the latter may well be generally correct 
inasmuch as there were Spanish witnesses present, 
but the account of this oration, delivered prior to 
the arrival of the Spanish invaders, is clearly open 
to a suspicion that it may be more or less imaginary. 
But the historian continues: "Upon this he took a 
Box full of Gold and valuable Jewels which he had 
with him, and exposing it to their view: Here is 
(said he) the God of the Spaniards, whom we must 
honor with our Sports and Dances, to see if we can 
appease him and render him propitious to us; that 
so he may command the Spaniards not to offer us 



OLD CUBA ii 

any injury. They all applauded this Speech, and 
fell a leaping and dancing around the Box, till they 
had quite tired and spent themselves. After which 
the Cacique Hatuey resuming his Discourse, con- 
tinued to speak to them in these terms: If we 
keep this God (says he) till he's taken away from 
us, he'll certainly cause our lives to be taken away 
from us; and therefore I am of opinion it will be 
the best way to cast him into the river. They all 
approved of this Advice, and went all together with 
one accord to throw this pretended God into the 
River." 

But the Spaniards came and encountered the re- 
sistance of Hatuey and his followers. The invaders 
were victorious, and Hatuey was captured and burned 
alive. Las Casas relates that while the poor wretch 
was in the midst of the flames, tied to a stake, "a 
certain Franciscan Friar of great Piety and Virtue, 
took upon him to speak to him of God and our 
Religion, and to explain to him some Articles of 
Catholic Faith, of which he had never heard a word 
before, promising him Eternal Life if he would believe 
and threatening him with Eternal Torment if he 
continued obstinate in his Infidelity. Hatuey re- 
flecting on the matter, as much as the Place and 
Condition in which he was would permit, asked the 
Friar that instructed him, whether the Gate of 
Heaven was open to Spaniards; and being answered 
that such of them as were good men might hope 
for entrance there: the Cacique, without any farther 



12 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

deliberation, told him that he had no mind to go 
to heaven for fear of meeting with such cruel and 
wicked Company as they were; but he would much 
rather choose to go to Hell where he might be de- 
livered from the troublesome sight of such kind of 
People." And so died the Cacique Hatuey. Four 
hundred years later, the Cuban Government named 
a gunboat Hatuey, in his honor. 

The Velasquez expedition, in the following year, 
founded Baracoa, now a small city on the northern 
coast near the eastern extremity of the island. It 
is a spot of exceeding scenic charm. It was estab- 
lished as the capital city, but it held that honor 
for a few years only. In 15 14 and 15 15, settlements 
were established at what is now Santiago, at Sancti 
Spiritus, Trinidad, and Batabano. The latter was 
originally called San Cristobal de la Habana, the 
name being transferred to the present city, on the 
north coast, in 15 19. It displaced the name Puerto 
de Carenas given to the present Havana by Ocampo, 
who careened his vessels there in 1508. Baracoa 
was made the seat of a bishopric, and a cathedral 
was begun, in 15 18. In 1522, both the capital and 
the bishopric were transferred to Santiago, a location 
more readily accessible from the new settlements on 
the south coast, and also from Jamaica which was 
then included in the diocese. Cuba, at about this 
period, was the point of departure for an important 
expedition. In 15 17, de Cordoba, with three vessels 
and no soldiers, was sent on an expedition to the 



OLD CUBA 13 

west for further and more northerly exploration of 
the land discovered by Columbus in 1503. The 
coast from Panama to Honduras had been occupied. 
The object of this expedition was to learn what lay 
to the northward. The result was the discovery of 
Yucatan. Cordoba returned to die of wounds re- 
ceived in a battle. A second and stronger expedition 
was immediately despatched. This rounded the 
peninsula and followed the coast as far as the present 
city of Vera Cruz. In 15 18, Hernan Cortez was 
alcalde, or mayor, of Santiago de Cuba. On Novem- 
ber 18, of that year, he sailed from that port in com- 
mand of an expedition for the conquest of Mexico, 
finally effected in 1521, after one of the most romantic 
campaigns in the history of warfare. All that, 
however, is a story in which Cuba has no place 
except that of the starting point and base of the 
expedition. There is another story of the same kind, 
a few years later. The first discovery of Florida is 
somewhat uncertain. It appears on an old Spanish 
map dated 1502. Following the expedition of Ponce 
de Leon, in 15 13, and of Murielo, in 15 16, Narvaez 
headed an expedition from Cuba in 1528 with some 
three hundred freebooters. They landed in Florida, 
where almost the entire band was, very properly, 
destroyed by the Indians. In 1539, de Soto sailed 
from Havana, with five hundred and seventy men 
and two hundred and twenty-three horses, for an 
extended exploration. They wandered for three 
years throughout what is now the southern part of 



i 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

the United States from Georgia and South Carolina 
westward to Arkansas and Missouri. After a series 
of almost incredible experiences, de Soto died in 
1542, on the banks of the Mississippi River at a 
point probably not far from the Red River. These 
and other expeditions, from Cuba and from Mexico, 
to what is now territory of the United States, pro- 
duced no permanent results. No gold was found. 
Of the inhabitants of Cuba, as found by the 
Spaniards, comparatively little is recorded. They 
seem to have been a somewhat negative people, 
generally described as docile, gentle, generous, and 
indolent. Their garments were quite limited, and 
their customs altogether primitive. They disappear 
from Cuba's story in its earliest chapters. Very 
little is known of their numbers. Some historians 
state that, in the days of Columbus, the island had 
a million inhabitants, but this is obviously little if 
anything more than a rough guess. Humboldt makes 
the following comment: "No means now exist to 
arrive at a knowledge of the population of Cuba in 
the time of Columbus; but how can we admit what 
some otherwise judicious historians state, that when 
the island of Cuba was conquered in 151 1, it con- 
tained a million inhabitants of whom only 14,000 
remained in 15 17. The statistical information which 
we find in the writings of Las Casas is filled with 
contradictions. " Forty years or so later the Domin- 
ican friar, Luis Bertram, on his return to Spain, 
predicted that "the 200,000 Indians now in the island 



OLD CUBA 15 

of Cuba, will perish, vicftims to the cruelty of the 
Europeans." Yet Gomara stated that there was not 
an Indian in Cuba after 1553. Whatever the exact 
truth regarding numbers, it is evident that they 
disappeared rapidly, worked to death by severe 
task-masters. The institution of African slavery, 
to take the place of the inefficient and fast disappear- 
ing native labor, had its beginning in 1521. Baron 
Humboldt states that from that time until 1790, 
the total number of African negroes imported as 
slaves was 90,875. In the next thirty years, the 
business increased rapidly, and Humboldt estimates 
the total arrivals, openly entered and smuggled in, 
from 1521 to 1820, as 372,449. Mr. J. S. Thrasher, 
in a translation of Humboldt's work, issued in 1856, 
added a footnote showing the arrivals up to 1854 as 
644,000. A British official authority, at the same 
period, gives the total as a little less than 500,000. 
The exacl: number is not important. The institution 
on a large scale, in its relation to the total number 
of whites, was a fadl. 

It is, of course, quite impossible even today to 
argue the question of slavery. To many, the offence 
lies in the mere fadl; to others, it lies in the opera- 
tion of the system. At all events, the institution 
is no longer tolerated in any civilized country. While 
some to whom the system itself was a bitter offence 
have found much to criticize in its operation in Cuba, 
the general opinion of observers appears to be that 
it was there notably free from the brutality usually 



16 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

supposed to attend it. The Census Report of 1899, 
prepared under the auspices of the American author- 
ities, states that "while it was fraught with all the 
horrors of this nefarious business elsewhere, the laws 
for the protection of slaves were unusually humane. 
Almost from the beginning, slaves had a right to 
purchase their freedom or change their masters, and 
long before slavery was abolished they could own 
property and contract marriage. As a result, the 
proportion of free colored to slaves has always been 
large." Humboldt, who studied the institution while 
it was most extensive, states that "the position 
of the free negroes in Cuba is much better than it 
is elsewhere, even among those nations which have 
for ages flattered themselves as being most ad- 
vanced in civilization." The movement for the 
abolition of slavery had its beginning in 181 5, with 
the treaty of Vienna, to which Spain was a party. 
Various acts in the same direction appear in the next 
fifty years. The Moret law, enacted in 1870 by the 
Spanish Cortes, provided for gradual abolition in 
Spain's dominions, and a law of 1880, one of the 
results of the Ten Years' War, definitely abolished 
the system. Traces of it remained, however, until 
about 1887, when it may be regarded as having 
become extinct forever in Cuba. 

For the first two hundred and fifty years of Cuba's 
history, the city of Havana appears as the special 
centre of interest. There was growth in other 
sections, but it was slow, for reasons that will be 



OLD CUBA 17 

explained elsewhere. In 1538, Havana was attacked 
and totally destroyed by a French privateer. Her- 
nando de Soto, then Governor of the island, at once 
began the construction of defences that are now 
one of the special points of interest in the city. The 
first was the Castillo de la Fuerza. In 1552, Havana 
became the capital city. In 1555, it was again 
attacked, and practically destroyed, including the 
new fortress, by French buccaneers. Restoration 
was effected as rapidly as possible. In 1589, La 
Fuerza was enlarged, and the construction of the 
Morro and of La Punta, the fortress at the foot 
of the Prado, was begun. The old city wall, of 
which portions still remain, was of a later period. 
Despite these precautions, the city was repeatedly 
attacked by pirates and privateers. Some reference 
to these experiences will be made in a special chapter 
on the city. The slow progress of the island is 
shown by the fact that an accepted official report 
gives the total population in 1775 as 171,620, of 
whom less than 100,000 were white. The absence 
of precious metals is doubtless the main reason 
for the lack of Spanish interest in the development 
of the country. For a long time after the occupation, 
the principal industry was cattle raising. Agricul- 
ture, the production of sugar, tobacco, coffee, and 
other crops, on anything properly to be regarded 
as a commercial scale, was an experience of later 
years. The reason for this will be found in the mis- 
taken colonial policy of Spain, a policy the applica- 



18 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

tion of which, in a far milder manner, cost England 
its richest colony in the Western Hemisphere, and 
which, in the first quarter of the 19th Century, cost 
Spain all of its possessions in this half of the world, 
with the exception of Cuba and Porto Rico. 




II 

NEW CUBA 

HILE there is no point in Cuba's history 
that may be said to mark a definite division 
between the Old Cuba and the New Cuba, 
the beginning of the 19th Century may be taken for 
that purpose. Cuba's development dragged for two 
hundred and fifty years. The population increased 
slowly and industry lagged. For this, Spain's colonial 
policy was responsible. But it was the policy of the 
time, carried out more or less effectively by all na- 
tions having colonies. England wrote it particu- 
larly into her Navigation Acts of 165 1, 1660, and 
1663, and supported it by later Ads. While not 
rigorously enforced, and frequently evaded by the 
American colonists, the system at last proved so 
offensive that the colonists revolted in 1775. Most 
of Spain's colonies in the Western Hemisphere, for 
the same reason, declared and maintained their in- 
dependence in the first quarter of the 19th Century. 
At the bottom of Cuba's several little uprisings, and 
at the bottom of its final revolt in 1895, lay the same 
cause of offence. In those earlier years, it was held 
that colonies existed solely for the benefit of the 
mother-country. In 1497, almost at the very be- 



20 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

ginning of Spain's colonial enterprises in the New 
World, a royal decree was issued under which the 
exclusive privilege to carry on trade with the colonies 
was granted to the port of Seville. This monopoly 
was transferred to the port of Cadiz in 17 17, but it 
continued, in somewhat modified form in later years, 
until Spain had no colonies left. 

While Santiago was the capital of the island, from 
1522 to 1552, trade between Spain and the island 
could be carried on only through that port. When 
Havana became the capital, in 1552, the exclusive 
privilege of trade was transferred to that city. With 
the exception of the years 1762 and 1763, when the 
British occupied Havana and declared it open to 
all trade, the commerce of the island could only be 
done through Havana with Seville, until 17 17, and 
afterward with Cadiz. Baracoa, or Santiago, or 
Trinidad, or any other Cuban city, could not send 
goods to Santander, or Malaga, or Barcelona, or 
any other Spanish market, or receive goods directly 
from them. The law prohibited trade between 
Cuba and all other countries, and limited all trade 
between the island and the mother-country to the 
port of Havana, at one end, and to Seville or Cadiz, 
according to the time of the control of those ports, at 
the other end. Even intercolonial commerce was 
prohibited. At times, and for brief periods, the 
system was modified to the extent of special trade 
licences, and, occasionally, by international treaties. 
But the general system of trade restriction was 



NEW CUBA 21 

maintained throughout all of Spain's colonial experi- 
ence. Between 1778 and 1803, most of Cuba's ports 
were opened to trade with Spain. The European 
wars of the early years of the 19th Century led to 
modification of the trade laws, but in 1809 foreign 
commerce with Spanish American ports was again 
prohibited. A few years later, Spain had lost nearly 
all its American colonies. A new plan was adopted 
in 1818. Under that, Spain sought to hold the trade 
of Cuba and Porto Rico by tariffs so highly favorable 
to merchandise from the mother-country as to be 
effectively prohibitive with regard to many products 
from other countries. This, in general outline, is 
the cause of Cuba's slow progress until the 19th 
Century, and the explanation of its failure to make 
more rapid progress during that century. 

Naturally, under such conditions, bribery of offi- 
cials and smuggling became active and lucrative 
enterprises. It may be said, in strict confidence 
between writer and reader, that Americans were 
frequently the parties of the other part in these 
transactions. In search through a considerable num- 
ber of American histories, I have been unable to 
find definite references to trade with Cuba, yet 
there seems to be abundant reason for belief that 
such trade was carried on. There are many refer- 
ences to trade with the West Indies as far back as 
1640 and even a year or two earlier, but allusions 
to trade with Cuba do not appear, doubtless for 
the reason that it was contraband, a violation of 



22 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

both Spanish and British laws. There was evidently- 
some relaxation toward the close of the 18th Century. 
There are no records of the commerce of the American 
colonies, and only fragmentary records between 1776 
and 1789. The more elaborate records of 1789 
and following years show shipments of fish, whale 
oil, spermaceti candles, lumber, staves and heading, 
and other articles to the "Spanish West Indies," 
in which group Cuba was presumably included. The 
records of the time are somewhat unreliable. It 
was a custom for the small vessels engaged in that 
trade to take out clearance papers for the West 
Indies. The cargo might be distributed in a number 
of ports, and the return cargo might be similarly 
collected. For the year 1795, the records of the 
United States show total imports from the Spanish 
West Indies as valued at #1,740,000, and exports to 
that area as valued at #1,390,000. In 1800, the 
imports were #10,588,000, and the exports #8,270,000. 
Just how much of this was trade with Cuba, does not 
appear. Because of the trade increase at that time, 
and because of other events that, soon afterward, 
brought Cuba into more prominent notice, this period 
has been chosen as the line of division between the 
Old and the New Cuba. 

Compared with the wonderful fertility of Cuba, 
New England is a sterile area. Yet in 1790, a hun- 
dred and seventy years after its settlement, the 
latter had a population a little exceeding a million, 
while the former, in 1792, or two hundred and eighty 



NEW CUBA 23 

years after its occupation, is officially credited with 
a population of 272,300. Of these, 153,559 were 
white and 118,741 were colored. Several forces 
came into operation at this time, and population 
increased rapidly, to 572,363 in 1817, and to 704,465 
in 1827. In 1 841, it was a little more than a million. 
But the increase in colored population, by the im- 
portation of African slaves, outstripped the increase 
by the whites. In 1841, the population was divided 
into 418,291 whites and 589,333 colored. The impor- 
tation of slaves having declined, the year 1861 shows 
a white preponderance, since continued and sub- 
stantially increased. Among the forces contributing 
to Cuba's rapid growth during this period were a 
somewhat greater freedom of trade; the revolution 
in the neighboring island of Haiti and Santo Domingo, 
that had its beginning in 1791 and culminated, some 
ten years later, in the rule of Toussaint L'Ouverture; 
and an increased demand for sugar. One result of 
the Haitian disorder was the arrival, in eastern 
Cuba, of a large number of exiles and emigrants 
who established extensive coffee plantations. During 
the first hundred and fifty years of Cuba's history, 
the principal industry of the island was cattle raising, 
aside from the domestic industry of food supply. 
The proprietors lived, usually, in the cities and 
maintained their vast estates in the neighborhood. 
To this, later on, were added the production of honey 
and wax and the cultivation of tobacco. With the 
period now under consideration, there came the 



24 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

expansion of the coffee and sugar industries. The 
older activities do not appear to have been appreciably 
lessened; the others were added on. 

Europe and the Western Hemisphere were at that 
time in a state of general upheaval and rearrange- 
ment. Following the American Revolution, there 
came the French Revolution; the Napoleonic Wars; 
the war of 1812 between the United States and 
England; and the general revolt of the Spanish 
colonies. The world was learning new lessons, 
adopting new policies, in which the Spanish colonial 
system was a blunder the folly of which Spain did 
not even then fully realize. Yet from it all, by one 
means and another, Cuba benefited. Spain was 
fortunate in its selection of Governors-General sent 
out at this time. Luis de Las Casas, who arrived 
in 1790, is credited with much useful work. He 
improved roads and built bridges; established schools 
and the Casa de Beneficencia, still among the leading 
institutions in Havana; paved the streets of Havana; 
improved as far as he could the commercial condi- 
tions; and established the Sociedad Patriotica, some- 
times called the Sociedad Economica, an organization 
that has since contributed immeasurably to Cuba's 
welfare and progress. He was followed by others 
whose rule was creditable. But the principal evils, 
restricted commerce and burdensome taxation, were 
not removed, although world conditions practically 
compelled some modification of the commercial 
regulations. In 1801 the ports of the island were 



NEW CUBA 25 

thrown open to the trade of friendly and neutral 
nations. Eight years later, foreign commerce was 
again prohibited. In 1818, a new system was estab- 
lished, that of a tariff so highly favorable to mer- 
chandise from Spain that it was by no means unusual 
for goods to be shipped to that country, even from 
the United States, and from there reshipped to 
Cuba. Changes in the rates were made from time 
to time, but the system of heavy discrimination in 
favor of Spanish goods in Spanish ships continued 
until the equalization of conditions under the order 
of the Government of Intervention, in 1899. 

In his book published in 1840, Mr. Turnbull states 
that "the mercantile interests of the island have 
been greatly promoted by the relaxation of those 
restrictive regulations which under the old peninsular 
system bound down all foreign commerce with the 
colonies of Spain, and laid it prostrate at the feet 
of the mother-country. It cannot be said that the 
sound principles of free trade, in any large or ex- 
tended sense of the term, have been recognized or 
acted upon even at the single port of Havana. The 
discriminating duties imposed by the supreme gov- 
ernment of Madrid on the natural productions, 
manufactures, and shipping of foreign countries, in 
contradistinction to those of Spain, are so stringent 
and so onerous as altogether to exclude the idea of 
anything approaching to commercial freedom. There 
is no longer, it is true, any absolute prohibition, 
but in many cases the distinguishing duties are so 



26 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

heavy as to defeat their own objecl, and, in place 
of promoting the interests of the mother-country, 
have had little other effecT: than the establishment 
of an extensive and ruinous contraband." Under 
such conditions as those existing in Cuba, from its 
beginning practically until the establishment of its 
political independence, industrial development and 
commercial expansion are more than difficult. 

One of the natural results of such a system appeared 
in the activities of smugglers. The extent to which 
that industry was carried on cannot, of course, be 
even guessed. Some have estimated that the mer- 
chandise imported in violation of the laws equalled 
in value the merchandise entered at the custom 
houses. An official publication (American) states 
that "from smuggling on a large scale and privateer- 
ing to buccaneering and piracy is not a long step, 
and under the name of privateers French, Dutch, 
English, and American smugglers and buccaneers 
swarmed the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico 
for more than two centuries, plundering Spanish 
flotas and attacking colonial settlements. Among 
the latter, Cuba was the chief sufferer." Had Cuba's 
coasts been made to order for the purpose, they 
could hardly have been better adapted to the uses 
of smugglers. Off shore, for more than half its 
coast line, both north and south, are small islands 
and keys with narrow and shallow passages between 
them, thus making an excellent dodging area for 
small boats if pursued by revenue vessels. Thor- 



NEW CUBA 27 

oughly familiar with these entrances and hiding places, 
smugglers could land their goods almost at will with 
little danger of detection or capture. 

Another heavy handicap on the economic progress 
of the island appears in the system of taxation. 
Regarding this system, the Census of 1899 reports 
as follows : 

"Apart from imports and exports, taxes were 
levied on real and personal property and on industries 
and commerce of all kinds. Every profession, art, 
or manual occupation contributed its quota, while, 
as far back as 1638, seal and stamp taxes were es- 
tablished on all judicial business and on all kinds of 
petitions and claims made to official corporations, 
and subsequently on all bills and accounts. These 
taxes were in the form of stamps on official paper 
and at the date of American occupation the paper 
cost from 35 cents to $3 a sheet. On deeds, wills, 
and other similar documents the paper cost from 
35 cents to $37.50 per sheet, according to the value 
of the property concerned. Failure to use even the 
lowest-priced paper involved a fine of #50. 

"There was also a municipal tax on the slaughter 
of cattle for the market. This privilege was sold 
by the municipal council to the highest bidder, with 
the result that taxes were assessed on all animals 
slaughtered, whether for the market or for private 
consumption, with a corresponding increase in the 
price of meat. 

"Another tax established in 1528, called the derecho 



28 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

de averia, required the payment of 20 ducats (#16) 
by every person, bond or free, arriving in the island. 
In 1665 this tax was increased to #22, and continued 
in force to 1765, thus retarding immigration, and, 
to that extent, the increase of population, especially 
of the laboring class. 

"An examination of these taxes will show their 
excessive, arbitrary, and unscientific character, and 
how they operated to discourage Cubans from own- 
ing property or engaging in many industrial pursuits 
tending to benefit them and to promote the material 
improvement of the island. 

"Taxes on real estate were estimated by the tax 
inspector on the basis of its rental or productive 
capacity, and varied from 4 to 12 per cent. Sim- 
ilarly, a nominal municipal tax of 25 per cent was 
levied on the estimated profits of all industries and 
commerce, and on the income derived from all pro- 
fessions, manual occupations, or agencies, the collector 
receiving 6 per cent of all taxes assessed. Much un- 
just discrimination was made against Cubans in deter- 
mining assessable values and in collecting the taxes, and 
it is said that bribery in some form was the only effect- 
ive defense against the most flagrant impositions. " 

Some of the experiences of this period will be 
considered in special chapters on Cuba's alleged 
revolutions and on the relations of the United States 
to Cuba and its affairs. One point may be noted 
here. The wave of republicanism that swept over 
a considerable part of Europe and over the Western 



NEW CUBA 29 

Hemisphere, from 1775 to 1825, had its direct influ- 
ence in Spain, and an influence only less direct in 
Cuba. In 1812, Spain became a constitutional 
monarchy. It is true that the institution had only a 
brief life, but the sentiment that lay beneath it 
persisted and had been repeatedly a cause of dis- 
turbance on the Peninsula. Something of the same 
sentiment pervaded Cuba and excited ambitions, 
not for national independence, but for some partici- 
pation in government. A royal decree, in 18 10, 
gave Cuba representation in the Cortes, and two 
deputies from the island took part in framing the 
Constitution of 1812. This recognition of Cuba 
lasted for only two years, the Constitution being 
abrogated in 18 14, but it was restored in 1820, only 
to cease again three years later. Representatives 
were again admitted to the Cortes in 1834, and 
again excluded in 1837. The effect of all this was, 
perhaps, psychological rather than practical, but it 
gave rise to a new mental attitude and to some 
change in conduct. The effect appears in the nu- 
merous recurrences of open protest and passive resis- 
tance in the place of the earlier submission. Writing 
in 1855, Mr. J. S. Thrasher stated that "the essen- 
tial political elements of the island are antagonistic 
to those of the mother-country. While the Cortes 
and the crown have frequently declared that Cuba 
does not form an integral part of the Spanish mon- 
archy, but must be governed by special laws not 
applicable to Spain, and persist in ruling her under 



NEW CUBA 31 

official reprisals. The Cuban side, naturally partisan, 
appears to have been presented chiefly by fugitive 
pamphlets, more or less surreptitiously printed and 
distributed, usually the product of political extremists. 
Among these was a man of marked ability and of 
rare skill in the use of language. He was Don 
Antonio Saco, known in Cuba as the "Immortal 
Saco." In a letter written to a friend, in 1846, he 
says, "The tyranny of our mother-country, today 
most acute, will have this result — that within a 
period of time not very remote the Cubans will be 
compelled to take up arms to banish her." That 
British observers and most American observers 
should take the side of the Cubans is altogether 
natural. Writing in 1854, Mr. M. M. Ballou, in 
his History of Cuba, says: "The Cubans owe all the 
blessings they enjoy to Providence alone (so to speak), 
while the evils which they suffer are directly referable 
to the oppression of the home government. Nothing 
short of a military despotism could maintain the 
connection of such an island with a mother-country 
more than three thousand miles distant; and ac- 
cordingly we find the captain-general of Cuba in- 
vested with unlimited power. He is, in fact, a 
viceroy appointed by the crown of Spain, and ac- 
countable only to the reigning sovereign for his 
administration of the colony. His rule is absolute; 
he has the power of life and death and liberty in his 
hands. He can, by his arbitrary will, send into exile 
any person whatever, be his name or rank what it 



32 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

may, whose residence in the island he considers 
prejudicial to the royal interest, even if he has com- 
mitted no overt act. He can suspend the operation of 
the laws and ordinances, if he sees fit to do so; can 
destroy or confiscate property; and, in short, the island 
may be said to be perpetually in a state of siege." 

The student or the reader may take his choice. 
On one side are Spanish statements, official and semi- 
official, and on the other side, Cuban statements 
no less partisan. The facts appear to support the 
Cuban argument. In spite of the severe restrictions 
and the heavy burdens, Cuba shows a notable 
progress during the 19th Century. Governors came 
and went, some very good and others very bad. 
There were a. hundred of them from 15 12 to 1866, 
and thirty-six more from 1866 to 1899, the average 
term of service for the entire number being a little 
less than three years. On the whole, the most 
notable of the group of 19th Century incumbents 
was Don Miguel Tacon, who ruled from June 1, 
1834, until April 16, 1838. His record would seem 
to place him quite decidedly in the "reactionary" 
class, but he was a man of action who left behind 
him monuments that remain to his credit even now. 
One historian, Mr. Kimball, who wrote in 1850, 
describes him as one in whom short-sightedness, 
narrow views, and jealous and weak mind, were 
joined to an uncommon stubbornness of character. 
Another, Mr. M. M. Ballou, says that "probably 
of all the governors-general that have filled the post 



NEW CUBA 33 

in Cuba none is better known abroad, or has left 
more monuments to his enterprise, than Tacon. His 
reputation at Havana (this was written 1854) is of 
a somewhat doubtful character; for, though he 
followed out with energy various improvements, yet 
his modes of procedure were so violent that he was 
an object of terror to the people generally, rather 
than of gratitude. He vastly improved the appear- 
ance of the capital and its vicinity, built the new 
prison, rebuilt the governor's palace, constructed a 
military road to the neighboring forts, erected a 
spacious theatre and market house, arranged a new 
public walk, and opened a vast parade ground with- 
out the city walls, thus laying the foundation of the 
new city which has now sprung up in this formerly 
desolate suburb. He suppressed the gaming houses 
and rendered the streets, formerly infested with 
robbers, as secure as those of Boston or New York." 
Another writer, Mr. Samuel Hazard, in 1870, says: 
"Of all the governors who have been in command 
of the island Governor Tacon seems to have been 
the best, doing the most to improve the island, 
and particularly Havana; making laws, punishing 
offences, and establishing some degree of safety for 
its inhabitants. It is reported of him that he is 
said, like the great King Alfred, to have promised 
the Cubans that they should be able to leave their 
purses of money on the public highway without fear 
of having them stolen. At all events, his name is 
cherished by every Cuban for the good he has done, 



34 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

and paseos, theatres, and monuments bear his great 
name in Havana. " The Tacon theatre is now the 
Nacional, and the Paseo Tacon is now Carlos III. 
The "new prison" is the Car eel, or jail, at the north- 
ern end of the Prado, near the fortress of La Punta. 
Don Miguel may have been disliked for his methods 
and his manners, but he certainly did much to make 
his rule memorable. 

There is no reliable information that shows the 
progress of the island during the 19th Century. 
Even the census figures are questioned. A reported 
432,000 total population in 1804 is evidently no 
more than an estimate, yet it is very likely not 
far from the adlual. Concerning their distribution 
throughout the island, and the number engaged in 
different occupations, there are no records. There 
are no acceptable figures regarding the respective 
numbers of whites and blacks. Nor is there any 
record of the population in 1895, the year of the war 
for independence. From the definite tabulation, un- 
der American auspices, in 1899, showing 1,576,797, 
it has been estimated that the number in 1895, was 
a little less than 1,800,000, the difference being 
represented by the disasters of the war, by the result 
of reconcentration, and by departures during the 
disturbance. The general result seems to be that 
the population was practically quadrupled. A some- 
what rough approximation would show the blacks 
as multiplied by three, to an 1899 total of 505,000, 
with the whites multiplied by four, to a total of 




IRON GRILLE GATEWAY 

El Fedado, Suburb of Havana 



NEW CUBA 35 

1,067,000. Nor are there figures of trade that afford 
any proper clue to the growth of industry and com- 
merce. There are records of imports and exports 
from about 1850 onward, but before that time the 
matter of contraband trade introduces an element of 
uncertainty. An American official pamphlet on Cu- 
ban trade carries the statement, "the ascertainment 
of full and exact details of the commerce of Cuba 
prior to the close of Spanish dominion in the island 
is an impossibility. The Spanish authorities, as a 
rule, published no complete returns of Cuban trade, 
either foreign or domestic. Except with regard to 
Spain and the United States, most of the existing 
commercial statistics of Cuba, prior to 1899, are 
fragmentary and merely approximative. Spain and 
the United States have always kept a separate and 
distinct trade account with Cuba; but the United 
Kingdom, France, Germany, and other European 
countries excepting Spain, formerly merged their 
statistics of trade with Cuba in one general item 
embracing Cuba and Porto Rico, under the heading 
of "Spanish West Indies." Since 1899, however, 
all the Powers have kept separate accounts with 
Cuba, and the statistics of the Cuban Republic have 
been reasonably full and accurate." 

Cuba's recorded imports in 1894 show a total 
value of $90,800,000, and exports show a value of 
$102,000,000. Writing about the year 1825, Hum- 
boldt says: "It is more than probable that the 
imports of the whole island, licit and contraband, 



36 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

estimated at the actual value of the goods and the 
slaves, amount, at the present time, to fifteen or 
sixteen millions of dollars, of which barely three 
or four millions are re-exported." The same author- 
ity gives the probable exports of that time as about 
$12,500,000. The trade at the beginning of the 
century must have been far below this. The official 
figures for 185 1 show total imports amounting to 
$34,000,000, and exports to $33,000,000, but the 
accuracy of the figures is open to question. The 
more important fact is that of a very large gain in 
population and in production. The coffee industry, 
that assumed important proportions during a part 
of the first half of the century, gradually declined 
for the reason that sugar became a much more 
profitable crop. Now, Cuba imports most of its 
coffee from Porto Rico. Because of its convenience 
as a contraband article, there are no reliable figures 
of the tobacco output. Prior to 18 17, the com- 
modity was, for much of the time, a crown monopoly 
and, for the remainder of the time, a monopoly 
concession to private companies. In that year, cul- 
tivation and trade became free, subject to a tax on 
each planter of one-twentieth of his production. 

As we shall see, in another chapter, Cuba at last 
wearied of Spanish exactions and revolted as did the 
United States, weary of British rule and British 
exactions and restrictions, more than a hundred 
years earlier. 




Ill 

THE COUNTRY 

ESCRIPTION of the physical features of a 
country seldom makes highly entertaining 
reading, but it seems a necessary part of 
a book of this kind. Some readers may find interest 
if not entertainment in such a review. The total 
area of the island, including a thousand or more 
adjacent islands, islets, and keys, is given as 44,164 
square miles, a little less than the area of Pennsyl- 
vania and a little more than that of Ohio or Ten- 
nessee. Illustration of its shape by some familiar 
object is difficult, although various comparisons have 
been attempted. Some old Spanish geographers 
gave the island the name of La Lengua de Pajaro, 
"the bird's tongue." Mr. M. M. Ballou likened it 
to "the blade of a Turkish scimitar slightly curved 
back, or approaching the form of a long, narrow, 
crescent." Mr. Robert T. Hill holds that it "re- 
sembles a great hammer-headed shark> the head of 
which forms the straight, south coast of the east 
end of the island, from which the sinuous body 
extends westward. This analogy is made still more 
striking by two long, finlike strings of keys, or islets, 
which extend backward along the opposite coasts, 
parallel to the main body of the island." But all 



38 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

such comparisons call for a lively imagination. It 
might be likened to the curving handles of a plow 
attached to a share, or to any one of a dozen things 
that it does not at all clearly resemble. Regarding 
the Oriente coast, from Cape Cruz to Cape Maisi, 
as a base, from that springs a long and comparatively 
slender arm that runs northwesterly for five hun- 
dred miles to the vicinity of Havana. There, the 
arm, somewhat narrowed, turns downward in a 
generally southwestern direction for about two hun- 
dred miles. The total length of the island, from 
Cape Maisi on the east to Cape San Antonio on the 
west, is about seven hundred and thirty miles. Its 
width varies from a maximum, in Oriente Province, 
of about one hundred and sixty miles, to a minimum, 
in Havana Province, of about twenty-two miles. 
It has a general coast line of about twenty-two 
hundred miles, or, following all its sinuosities, of 
about seven thousand miles. Its north coast is, for 
much of its length, steep and rocky. Throughout 
the greater part of the middle provinces, there is a 
border of coral reefs and small islands. At the west- 
ern end, the north coast is low, rising gradually 
to the eastward. At the eastern end, the north- 
ern coast is abrupt and rugged, rising in a series of 
hills to the elevations in the interior. Westward 
from Cape Maisi to Cape Cruz, on the south coast, 
and immediately along the shore line, runs a moun- 
tain range. From here westward, broken by an 
occasional hill or bluff, the coast is low and marshy. 



THE COUNTRY 39 

Probably the best description of the topography 
and the orography of the island yet presented is 
that given by Mr. Robert T. Hill, of the United 
States Geological Survey. In his book on Cuba 
and other islands of the West Indies, Mr. Hill says: 

"As regards diversity of relief, Cuba's eastern end 
is mountainous, with summits standing high above 
the adjacent sea; its middle portion is wide, con- 
sisting of gently sloping plains, well-drained, high 
above the sea, and broken here and there by low, 
forest-clad hills; and its western third is a picturesque 
region of mountains, with fertile slopes and valleys, 
of different structure and less altitude than those 
of the east. Over the whole is a mantle of tender 
vegetation, rich in every hue that a flora of more 
than three thousand species can give, and kept 
green by mists and gentle rains. Indenting the rock- 
bound coasts are a hundred pouch-shaped harbors 
such as are but rarely found in the other islands 
and shores of the American Mediterranean. 

"But, at the outset the reader should dispossess 
his mind of any preconceived idea that the island 
of Cuba is in any sense a physical unit. On the 
contrary, it presents a diversity of topographic, 
climatic, and cultural features, which, as distributed, 
divide the island into at least three distinct natural 
provinces, for convenience termed the eastern, central, 
and western regions. The distinct types of relief 
include regions of high mountains, low hills, dissected 
plateaus, intermontane valleys, and coastal swamps. 



4 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

With the exception of a strip of the south-central 
coast, the island, as a whole, stands well above the 
sea, is thoroughly drained, and presents a rugged 
aspect when viewed from the sea. About one-fourth 
of the total area is mountainous, three-fifths are 
rolling plain, valleys, and gentle arable slopes, and 
the remainder is swampy. 

"The island border on the north presents a low 
cliff topography, with a horizontal sky-line from 
Matanzas westward, gradually decreasing from five 
hundred feet at Matanzas to one hundred feet on 
the west. The coast of the east end is abrupt and 
rugged, presenting on both the north and south 
sides a series of remarkable terraces, rising in stair- 
like arrangement to six hundred feet or more, repre- 
senting successive pauses or stages in the elevation 
of the island above the sea, and constituting most 
striking scenic features. About one-half the Cuban 
coast is bordered by keys, which are largely old reef 
rock, the creations of the same coral-builders that 
may now be seen through the transparent waters 
still at work on the modern shallows, decking the 
rocks and sands with their graceful and many colored 
tufts of animal foliage." 

Mr. Hill summarizes the general appearance of 
the island, thus: "Santiago de Cuba (now called 
Oriente) is predominantly a mountainous region of 
high relief, especially along the coasts, with many 
interior valleys. Puerto Principe (now Camaguey) 
and Santa Clara are broken regions of low mountain 



THE COUNTRY 41 

relief, diversified by extensive valleys. Matanzas 
and Havana are vast stretches of level cultivated 
plain, with only a few hills of relief. Pinar del Rio is 
centrally mountainous, with fertile coastward slopes." 
The notable elevations of the island are the Cordil- 
leras de los Organos, or Organ Mountains, in Pinar 
del Rio, of which an eastward extension appears in the 
Tetas de Managua, the Areas de Canasi, the Escalera 
de Jaruco, the Pan de Matanzas, and other minor 
elevations in Havana and Matanzas Provinces. In 
Santa Clara and Camaguey, the range is represented 
by crest lines and plateaus along the north shore, 
and finally runs into the hill and mountain maze of 
Oriente. In the south-central section of the island, 
a somewhat isolated group of elevations appears, 
culminating in El Potrerillo at a height of nearly 
3,000 feet. In Oriente, immediately along the south 
coast line, is the precipitous Sierra Maestra, reaching 
its greatest altitude in the Pico del Turquino, with 
an elevation of approximately 8,500 feet. Another 
elevation, near Santiago, known as La Gran Piedra, 
is estimated at 5,200 feet. All these heights are 
densely wooded. From the tops of some of them, 
east, west, and central, the views are marvellously 
beautiful, but the summits of most are reached only 
with considerable difficulty. One of the most notable 
of these view points, and one of the most easily 
reached, is the height immediately behind the city 
of Matanzas, overlooking the famous Yumuri valley. 
The valley is a broad, shallow bowl, some five or 



42 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

six miles in diameter, enclosed by steeply sloping 
walls of five to six hundred feet in height. Through 
it winds the Yumuri River. It is best seen in the 
early forenoon, or the late afternoon, when there 
come the shadows and the lights that are largely 
killed by the more vertical rays of a midday sun. 
At those hours, it is a scene of entrancing loveliness. 
There are views, elsewhere, covering wider expanses, 
but none, I think, of equal beauty. 

The vicinity of Matanzas affords a spectacle of 
almost enchantment for the sight-seer, and of deep 
interest for the geologist. Somewhat more than 
fifty years ago, an accident revealed the beautiful 
caves of Bellamar, two or three miles from the 
city, and easily reached by carriage. Caves ought 
to be cool. These are not, but they are well worth 
all the perspiration it costs to see them. They are 
a show place, and guides are always available. In 
size, the caverns are not comparable with the caves 
of Kentucky and Virginia, but they far excel in 
beauty. They are about three miles in extent, 
and their lower levels are said to be about five 
hundred feet from the surface. The rock is white 
limestone, in which are chambers and passageways, 
stalactites and stalagmites innumerable. These have 
their somewhat fantastic but not unfitting names, 
such as the Gothic Temple, the Altar, the Guardian 
Spirit, the Fountain of Snow, and Columbus' Mantle. 
The place has been called "a dream of fairyland," 
a fairly appropriate description. The colors are 



THE COUNTRY 43 

snow-white, pink, and shades of yellow, and many 
of the forms are wonderfully beautiful. There are 
many other caves in the island, like Cotilla, in the 
Guines region not far from Havana, others in the 
Cubitas Mountains in Camaguey Province, and still 
others in Oriente, but in comparison with Bellamar 
they are little else than holes in the ground. The 
trip through these remarkable aisles and chambers 
occupies some three or four hours. 

Cuba is not big enough for rivers of size. There 
are innumerable streams, for the island generally 
is well-watered. The only river of real importance 
is the Cauto, in Oriente Province. This is the 
longest and the largest river in the island. It rises 
in the hills north of Santiago, and winds a devious 
way westward for about a hundred and fifty miles, 
emptying at last into the Gulf of Buena Esperanza, 
north of the city of Manzanillo. It is navigable for 
small boats, according to the stage of the water, from 
seventy-five to a hundred miles from its mouth. 
Numerous smaller streams flow to the coast on both 
north and south. Some, that are really estuaries, 
are called rivers. Very few of them serve any com- 
mercial purposes. There are a few water areas called 
lakes, but they are really little other than ponds. 
On the south coast, directly opposite Matanzas, 
lies a vast swamp known as the Cienega de Zapata. 
It occupies an area of about seventy-five miles in 
length and about thirty miles in width, almost a 
dead flat, and practically at sea-level. Here and there 



44 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

are open spaces of water or clusters of trees, but 
most of it is bog and quagmire and dense mangrove 
thickets. Along the coast are numerous harbors, 
large and small, that are or, by dredging, could be 
made available for commercial purposes. Among 
these, on the north coast, from west to east, are 
Bahia Honda, Mariel, Havana, Matanzas, Nuevitas, 
Nipe Bay, and Baracoa. On the south, from east 
to west, are Guantanamo, Santiago, Manzanillo, 
Cienfuegos, and Batabano. At all of these, there 
are now cities or towns with trade either by steamers 
or small sailing vessels. Among the interesting 
physical curiosities of the island are the numerous 
"disappearing rivers." Doubtless the action of water 
on limestone has left, in many places, underground 
chambers and tunnels into which the streams have 
found an opening and in which they disappear, 
perhaps to emerge again and perhaps to find their 
way to the sea without reappearance. This seems 
to explain numerous fresh-water springs among the 
keys and off-shore. The Rio San Antonio quite 
disappears near San Antonio de los Banos. Near 
Guantanamo, a cascade drops three hundred feet 
into a cavern and reappears a short distance away. 
Such disappearing rivers are not unknown elsewhere 
but Cuba has several of them. 

The Census Report of 1907, prepared under Ameri- 
can auspices, states that "the climate of Cuba is 
tropical and insular. There are no extremes of heat, 



THE COUNTRY 45 

and there is no cold weather." This is quite true 
if the records of a thermometer are the standard; 
quite untrue if measured by the sensations of the 
human body. It is true that, in Havana, for instance, 
the thermometer seldom exceeds 90 in the hottest 
months, and rarely if ever goes below 50 in the 
coldest. But a day with the thermometer anywhere 
in the 80s may seem to a northern body very hot, 
and a day with the thermometer in the 50s is cold 
for anyone, whether a native or a visitor. There 
is doubtless a physical reason for the facl: that a hot 
day in the north seems hotter than the same tem- 
perature in the south, while a day that seems, in 
the north, only pleasantly cool, seems bitterly cold 
in the tropics. When the thermometer drops below 
6o° in Havana, the coachmen blanket their horses, 
the people put on all the clothes they have, and all 
visitors who are at all sensitive to low temperature 
go about shivering. Steam heat and furnaces are 
unknown, and fireplaces are a rarity. Yet, in gen- 
eral, the variations are not wide, either from day to 
day or when measured by seasons. The extremes 
are the infrequent exceptions. Nor is there wide 
difference between day and night. Taking the island 
as a whole, the average mean temperature for July, 
the hottest month, is about 82 , and for January, 
the coolest month, about 71 . The mean for the 
year is about JJ°, as compared with 52 for New 
York, 48 for Chicago, 62 for Los Angeles, and 68° 
for New Orleans. There are places that, by reason 



46 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

of exposure to prevailing winds, or distance from the 
coast, are hotter or cooler than other places. Havana 
is one of the cool spots, that is, relatively cool. But 
no one goes there in search of cold. The yearly- 
range in Havana, from maximum to minimum, 
rarely if ever exceeds fifty degrees, and is usually 
somewhat below that, while the range in New York, 
Chicago, and St. Louis is usually from one hundred 
to one hundred and twenty-five degrees. The par- 
ticular cause of discomfort for those unused to it, is 
the humidity that prevails throughout the greater part 
of the year. The worst season for this, however, is 
the mid-year months when few people visit the island. 
The winter months, locally known as the " invierno" 
a term to be associated with our word "vernal" 
and not with "infernal," are almost invariably de- 
lightful, bringing to northern systems a pleasurable 
physical laziness that is attended by a mental in- 
difference to, or satisfaction with, the sensation. 

The rainfall varies so widely in different parts of 
the island, and from year to year, that exadl informa- 
tion is difficult. Taken as a whole, it is little if at 
all greater than it is in most places in the United 
States. We have our arid spots, like El Paso, Fresno, 
Boise, Phoenix, and Winnemucca, where only a few 
inches fall in a year, just as Cuba has a few places 
where the fall may reach sixty-five or seventy inches 
in a year. But the average fall in Havana, Matanzas, 
Cienfuegos, and Santiago, is little if any greater 
than in Boston, New York, or Washington. A dif- 



THE COUNTRY 47 

ference appears in the facl: that about three-quarters 
of Cuba's precipitation comes between the first of 
May and the first of Odtober. But the term "wet 
season" does not mean that it rains all the time, or 
every day, any more than the term "dry season" 
means that during those months it does not rain at 
all. At times during the winter, or dry season, 
there come storms that are due to unusual cold in 
the United States. These are known in Cuba, as 
they are in Texas, as "northers." High winds 
sweep furiously across the Gulf of Mexico, piling up 
huge seas on the Cuban coast, and bringing what, 
in the island, is the substitute for cold weather, usu- 
ally attended by rain and sometimes by a torrent 
of it. The prevailing wind in Cuba is the northeast 
trade-wind. In summer when the sun is diredlly 
overhead this wind is nearly east, while in winter it 
is northeast. The proper way to avoid such dis- 
comfort as attends humidity accompanying a ther- 
mometer in the 80s, is to avoid haste in movement, 
to saunter instead of hurrying, to ride instead of 
walking, to eat and drink in moderation, and where- 
ever possible, to keep in the shade. Many of those 
who eat heartily and hurry always, will, after a few 
days, be quite sure that they have yellow fever or 
some other tropical disorder, but will be entirely 
mistaken about it. Modern sanitation in Cuba has 
made yellow fever a remote possibility, and the 
drinking water in Havana is as pure as any in the 
world. 



48 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

Most of the official descriptions of the flora of 
Cuba appear to be copied from Robert T. Hill's 
book, published in 1898. As nothing better is avail- 
able, it may be used here. He says: "The surface 
of the island is clad in a voluptuous floral mantle, 
which, from its abundance and beauty, first caused 
Cuba to be designated the Pearl of the Antilles. 
In addition to those introduced from abroad, over 
3,350 native plants have been catalogued. The flora 
includes nearly all characteristic forms of the other 
West Indies, the southern part of Florida, and the 
Central American seaboard. Nearly all the large 
trees of the Mexican Tierra Caliente, so remarkable 
for their size, foliage, and fragrance, reappear in 
western Cuba. Numerous species of palm, including 
the famous royal palm, occur, while the pine trees, 
elsewhere characteristic of the temperate zone and 
the high altitudes of the tropics, are found associated 
with palms and mahoganies in the province of Pinar 
del Rio and the Isle of Pines, both of which take 
their name from this tree. Among other woods are 
the lignum-vitae, granadilla, the coco-wood, and the 
Cedrela Odorata (fragrant cedar) which is used for 
cigar boxes and the lining of cabinet work." 

In quoting the number of native plants, Mr. Hill 
uses a report somewhat antiquated. Later estimates 
place the number as between five and six thousand. 
Flowers are abundant, flowers on vines, plants, 
shrubs, and trees, tall stalks with massive heads, 
and dainty little blossoms by the wayside. Brilliant 



THE COUNTRY 49 

flowering trees are planted to line the roadsides. 
Among all the tree-growths, the royal palm is notable. 
Scoffers have likened it to "a feather duster stood 
on end," but it is the prominent feature in most of 
Cuba's landscape, and it serves many purposes other 
than that of mere decoration. From its stem the 
Cuban peasant builds his little cottage which he 
roofs with its leaves. Medicinal qualities are claimed 
for its roots. From different parts of the tree, a wide 
variety of useful articles is made, plates, buckets, 
basins, and even a kettle in which water may be 
boiled. The huge clusters of seeds are excellent 
food for animals, and I have heard it said, though 
without proper confirmation, that "a royal palm 
will keep a hog." Almost invariably, its presence 
indicates a rich soil, as it rarely grows in areas of 
poor land. The forest area of the island is not known 
with exactness, and is variously estimated at from 
about six thousand square miles to about sixteen 
thousand. The difference probably represents the 
opinion of individual investigators as to what is 
forest. About one-third of the total is reported as 
in Oriente, another third in Camaguey, and the re- 
mainder scattered through the four remaining prov- 
inces. A part of it is "public land," that is, owned 
by the central government, but a greater part is 
of private ownership under old Spanish grants. 
Much of it is dense jungle through which a way 
can be made only by hacking, almost foot by foot. 
A good deal of it has already been cut over for its 



5 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

most valuable timber. Most of the woods bear 
names entirely unfamiliar to us. Some are used 
as cabinet woods, and some for tanning, for oils, 
dyes, gums, or fibres. 

Cuba has few four-footed native wild animals. 
There are rabbits, but their nativity is not quite 
certain. There are deer, but it is known that their 
ancestors were brought from some other country. 
There are wild dogs, wild cats, and wild pigs, but all 
are only domestic animals run wild. 

Perhaps the only animal of the kind known to be 
native is the jutia, sometimes spelled, as pronounced, 
hutia. Some observers have referred to it as a rat, 
but it climbs trees and grows to the size of a wood- 
chuck, or groundhog. It is sometimes eaten and is 
said to be quite palatable. Reptiles are fairly com- 
mon, but none of them is dangerous. The best 
known is the maja, a snake that grows to a length, 
sometimes, of twelve or fifteen feet. The country 
people not infrequently make of it a kind of house 
pet. When that is done, the reptile often makes its 
home in the cottage thatch, living on birds and mice. 
They are dull and sluggish in motion. While visiting 
a sugar plantation a few years ago one of the hands 
asked if I should be interested by their maja. He 
dipped his hand into a nearby water-barrel in the 
bottom of which two of them were closely coiled. 
He dragged out one of perhaps ten or twelve feet 
in length and four or five inches in diameter, 



THE COUNTRY 51 

handling it as he would the same length of hawser. 
He hung it over the limb of a tree so that I could 
have a good chance for a picture of it. The thing 
squirmed slowly to the ground and crawled slug- 
gishly away to the place from which it had been 
taken. Of bird-life there is a large representation, 
both native and migratory. Among them are some 
fifty species of " waders. " In some parts of the 
island, the very unpleasant land-crab, about the size 
of a soup-plate, seems to exist in millions, although 
thousands is probably nearer the actual. The Ameri- 
can soldiers made their acquaintance in large numbers 
at the time of the Santiago campaign. They are 
not a proper article of food. They have a salt-water 
relative that is most excellent eating, as is also the 
lobster (langosta) of Cuban waters. In the swamp 
known as the Cienega de Zapata are both alligators 
and crocodiles, some of them of quite imposing 
dimensions. 

The insect life of the island is extensive. From 
personal experience, particularly behind the search- 
light of an automobile that drew them in swarms, I, 
should say that the island would be a rich field 
for the entomologist. There are mosquitos, gnats, 
beetles, moths, butterflies, spiders, and scorpions. 
The bites of some of the spiders and the stings of 
the scorpions are, of course, uncomfortable, but 
they are neither fatal nor dangerous. With the 
exception of an occasional mosquito, and a perhaps 
more than occasional flea, the visitor to cities only is 



52 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

likely to encounter few of the members of these 
branches of Cuban zoology. There is one of the 
beetle family, however, that is extremely interesting. 
That is the cucullo, which Mr. Hazard, in his book 
on Cuba, calls a "bright peripatetic candle-bearer, 
by whose brilliant light one can not only walk, 
but even read." They are really a kind of glorified 
firefly, much larger than ours, and with a much 
more brilliant light. I do not know their candle- 
power, but Mr. Hazard exaggerates little if at all 
in the matter of their brilliancy. 

While those referred to in the foregoing are the 
most notable features in this particular part of the 
Cuban field, there are others, though of perhaps 
less importance, to which reference might be made. 
Among them would be the sponge fisheries of the 
coast in the neighborhood of Batabano, and the 
numerous mineral springs, some of them really having, 
and others supposed to have, remarkable curative 
qualities. A half century or so ago, a number of 
places not far from Havana were resorts to which 
rich and poor went to drink or to bathe in springs 
hot or cold or sulphurous or otherwise, for their 
healing. Among these were the baths at San Diego, 
near the Organ Mountains in Pinar del Rio; Santa 
Rita, near Guanabacoa in Havana Province; others 
near Marianao, on the outskirts of the city; and 
San Antonio, also in Havana Province. Most of 
these places now appear to have lost their popularity 



THE COUNTRY 53 

if not their medicinal virtues. Some, like those at 
Madruga, not far from Havana, still have a con- 
siderable patronage. Something may also be said 
of earthquakes and hurricanes. The former occur, 
on a small scale, more or less frequently in Oriente, 
and much less frequently and of less severity in 
Havana. The latter come from time to time to 
work disaster to Cuban industries and, sometimes 
but not frequently, to cause loss of life and the 
destruction of buildings. They rarely occur except 
in the late summer and the autumn. 

Nearly a hundred years ago, Alexander Humboldt, 
a traveller and a scientist, wrote thus of the island 
of Cuba : " Notwithstanding the absence of deep 
rivers and the unequal fertility of the soil, the island 
of Cuba presents on every hand a most varied and 
agreeable country from its undulating character, its 
ever-springing verdure, and the variety of its vegetable 
formations." 



IV 
THE OLD HAVANA 

AMONG the many pictures stored away in 
the album of my memory, there are two 
that stand out more vividly than any 
others. The subjects are separated by half the 
world's circumference. One is the sunsets at Jolo, in 
the southern Philippines. There the sun sank into 
the western sea in a blaze of cloud-glory, between the 
low-lying islands on either hand with the rich green 
of their foliage turned to purple shadows. The other 
is the sunrise at Havana, seen from the deck of a 
steamer in the harbor. The long, soft shadows and 
the mellow light fell on the blue and gray and green 
of the buildings of the city, and on the red-tiled 
roofs, with the hills for a background in one-half 
of the picture, and the gleaming water of the gulf 
in the background of the other half. I had seen 
the long stretch of the southern coast of the island, 
from Cape Antonio to Cape Maisi, while on an 
excursion with a part of the army of occupation 
sent to Porto Rico in the summer of 1898, and had 
set foot on Cuban soil at Daiquiri, but Havana in 
the morning light, on January 2, 1899, was my first 
real Cuban experience. It remains an ineffaceable 



THE OLD HAVANA 55 

memory. Of my surroundings and experiences aside 
from that, I have no distinct recollection. All 
was submerged by that one picture, and quickly 
buried by the activities into which I was immediately 
plunged. I do not recall the length of time we were 
held on board for medical inspection, nor whether 
the customs inspection was on board or ashore. I 
recall the trip from the ship to the wharf, in one of 
the little sailboats then used for the purpose, rather 
because of later experiences than because of the first 
one. I have no purpose here to write a history of 
those busy days, filled as they were with absorbing 
interest, with much that was pathetic and not a 
little that was amusing. I have seen that morning 
picture many times since, but never less beautiful, 
never less impressive. Nowadays, it is lost to most 
travellers because the crossing from Key West is 
made in the daytime, the boat reaching Havana in 
the late afternoon. Sometimes there is a partial 
compensation in the sunset picture, but I have never 
seen that when it really rivalled the picture at the 
beginning of the day. 

The visitor to Cuba, unfamiliar with the island, 
should take it leisurely. It is not a place through 
which the tourist may rush, guide book in hand, 
making snapshots with a camera, and checking off 
places of interest as they are visited. Pictur- 
esqueness and quaintness are not at all lacking, 
but there are no noble cathedrals, no vast museums 
of art and antiquity, no snow-clad mountains. There 



56 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

is a charm of light and shade and color that is to 
be absorbed slowly rather than swallowed at a single 
gulp. It is emphatically a place in which to dawdle. 
Let those who are obliged to do so, work and hurry; 
the visitor and the traveller should take it without 
haste. It is far better to see Havana and its vicin- 
ity slowly and enjoyably, and look at pictures of 
the rest of the country, than it is to rush through the 
island merely for the sake of doing so. In his essay 
on The Moral of Landscape, Mr. Ruskin said that 
"all travelling becomes dull in exadt proportion to 
its rapidity." Nowhere is that more true than it is 
in Cuba. There is very little in all the island that 
cannot be seen in Havana and its immediate vicinity. 
It is well to see the other places if one has ample 
time, but they should not be seen at the expense 
of a proper enjoyment of Havana and its neighbor- 
hood. In Havana are buildings as old and buildings 
as beautiful as any in the island. In its vicinity 
are sugar plantations, tobacco fields, pineapples, 
cocoanuts, mangoes, royal palms, ceibas, peasants' 
homes, typical towns and villages, all the life of 
the people in the city and country. The common 
American desire to "see it all" in a few days, is 
fatal to the greatest enjoyment, and productive 
mainly of physical fatigue and mental confusion. It 
is the misfortune of most travellers that they carry 
with them only the vaguest of ideas of what they 
want to see. They have heard of Cuba, of Havana, 
the Morro, the Prado, of a sunny island in the midst 



THE OLD HAVANA 57 

of a sapphire sea. While it is true that almost 
everything in Cuba is worth seeing, it is best to 
acquire, before going, some idea of the exhibition. 
That saves time and many steps. The old city wall, 
La Fuerza, and La Punta, are mere piles of masonry, 
more or less dull and uninteresting unless one knows 
something of their history. The manners and cus- 
toms of any country become increasingly interesting 
if one knows something about them, the reason for 
them. 

It is only a short trip to the Castillo del Principe, 
the fortress that crowns the hill to the west of the 
city. From that height, the city and the harbor 
are seen below, to the eastward. Across the bay, 
on the heights at the entrance, are the frowning 
walls of Morro Castle surmounted by the towering 
light-house, and the no less grim walls of La Cabana. 
The bay itself is a sprawling, shapeless body of water 
with a narrow neck connecting it with the Florida 
Straits. Into the western side of the bay the city 
thrusts itself in a shape that, on a large map, sug- 
gests more than anything else the head and neck 
of an over-fed bulldog. Into this bay, in 1508, came 
Sebastian Ocampo, said to be the first white man 
to visit the spot. He entered for the purpose of ca- 
reening his little vessels in order to remove the 
barnacles and accumulated weed-growth. It is pos- 
sible that the spot was discovered earlier, but there 
is no record of the discovery if such was made. 
Ocampo gave it the name of Puerto de Carenas. 



58 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

The next record is of its occupation, in 15 19. Four 
years earlier, Diego Velasquez had left a little colony 
near what is now called Batabano, on the south 
coast. He gave the place the name of San Cristobal 
de la Habana, in memory of the illustrious navigator 
and discoverer. Habana, or Havana, is a term of 
aboriginal origin. It proved to be an uncomfortable 
place of residence, and in 15 19 the people moved 
across the island to the Puerto de Carenas, taking 
with them the name given to the earlier settlement, 
and substituting it for the name given by Ocampo. 
After a time, all was dropped except the present 
title, Habana, or more commonly by English-speaking 
people, Havana. It was not much of a place for a 
number of years, but in 1538 it was sacked and 
burned by a French pirate, one of the many, of 
different nations, who carried on a very lively buc- 
caneering business in those and in later years in 
West Indian waters. Hernando de Soto was then 
governor of the island, with headquarters at the 
then capital city, Santiago de Cuba. He proceeded 
at once to the scene of destruction. On his arrival, 
he ordered the erection of a fortress. Some of the 
work then done still remains in the old structure 
near the Palace, at the foot of Calle O'Reilly, known 
as La Fuerza. A few years before this time, Hernan 
Cortes had conquered Mexico, then called New 
Spain, and a business between Old Spain and New 
Spain soon developed. The harbor of Havana 
made a convenient halting-place on the voyages 



THE OLD HAVANA 59 

between the two, and the settlement assumed a 
steadily increasing importance. A new governor, 
Gonzales Perez de Angulo, who arrived in 1549, 
decided to make it his place of residence. The year 
1552 is generally given as the time of the creation 
of Havana as the capital city. It was at that time 
made the residence city of the Governors, by their 
own choice, but it was not officially established as 
the capital until 1589. The fortress erected by order 
of de Soto proved somewhat ineffective. In 1554, 
another French marauder attacked and destroyed 
the town. The principal industry of those early 
days was cattle-raising, a considerable market being 
developed for export to Mexico, and for the supply 
of vessels that entered the harbor for food and 
water. 

The continuance of incursions by pirates made nec- 
essary some further provision for the defence of the 
city. In 1589, La Fuerza was enlarged and strength- 
ened, and the construction of Morro Castle was begun. 
To this work was added La Punta, the little fortress 
on the western shore of the entrance, at the point of 
the angle now formed by the Prado and the Male- 
con. These ancient structures, of practically no value 
whatever in modern warfare, are now among the 
most picturesque points of interest in the neighbor- 
hood. Another, in the same class, of which only a 
little now remains, is of a later time. This is the 
old city wall, the construction of which was begun in 
167 1. Following the simile of the bull-dog's head, 



6o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

a trad: of land, formerly known as the Arsenal yard, 
and now the central railway station, lies tucked 
away immediately under the animal's jaw. From 
there to a point on the north shore, near La Punta, 
in a slightly curving line, a high wall was erected for 
the purpose of defence on the western or landward 
side. The old city lay entirely in the area defined 
by this western wall and the shore of the harbor. 
At intervals, gates afforded exit to the country be- 
yond, heavy gates that could be closed to exclude any 
possible attacking party. The fortifications erected 
from time to time were supposed to afford a system 
of effective defence for the city. They are now little 
else than picturesque features in the landscape, 
points of interest for visitors. Taking the chain in 
its order, El Morro stands on the point on the east- 
ern side of the entrance to the harbor. Just beyond 
it is La Cabana. About a half a mile to the east 
of this was the stone fort on the hill of San Diego. 
Three miles east of the Morro, on the shore at Coji- 
mar, is a small and somewhat ancient fortification. 
This group constituted the defence system on the 
east. At the head of the bay, on an elevation a little 
to the south of the city, stands El Castillo de Atares, 
begun in 1763, immediately after the capture and 
occupation of the city by the British. This is 
supposed to protect the city on the south, as Castillo 
del Principe is supposed to defend it on the west. 
This stands on a hill on the western outskirts, a 
somewhat extensive structure, begun in 1774 and 



THE OLD HAVANA 61 

completed about twenty years later. A little further 
to the west, at the mouth of the Almendares river, 
stands a little fort, or tower, called Chorrera, serving 
as a western outpost as Cojimar serves as an eastern 
outpost. Both were erected about the year 1650. 
On the shore generally north of Principe was the 
Santa Clara battery, and between that and La 
Punta, at the foot of the Calzada de Belascoain, 
stood the Queen's battery. From any modern 
point of view, the system is little more than military 
junk, better fitted for its present use as barracks, 
asylums, and prisons than for military defence. But 
it is all highly picturesque. 

In the beginning, most of the buildings of the city 
were doubtless of wood, with palm-thatched roofs. 
In time, these gave place to rows of abutting stone 
buildings with tiled roofs. Most of them were of 
one story, some were of two stories, and a few 
"palaces" had three. The city within the wall is 
today very much as it was a century and more ago. 
Its streets run, generally but not accurately, at right 
angles, one set almost due east and west, from the 
harbor front to the line of the old wall, and the other 
set runs southward from the shore of the entrance 
channel to the shore of the inner harbor. Several 
of these streets are practically continuous from north 
to south or from east to west. But most of them 
are rather passage-ways than streets. The houses 
come to their very edges, except for a narrow strip 
hardly to be classed as a sidewalk, originally left, 



62 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

presumably, only for the purpose of preventing the 
scraping of the front of the building by the wheels 
of passing carts and carnages. It is a somewhat 
inconvenient system nowadays, but one gets quite 
used to it after a little, threads the narrow walk a 
part of his way, takes to the street the rest of the 
way, and steps aside to avoid passing vehicles quite 
as did the carriageless in the old days. One excellent 
way to avoid the trouble is to take a carriage and 
let the other fellow step aside. Riding in the coche 
is still one of the cheapest forms of convenience and 
entertainment in the city, excepting the afternoon 
drive around the Prado and the Malecon. That is 
not cheap. We used to pay a dollar an hour. My 
last experience cost me three times that. 

Much of the old city is now devoted to business 
purposes, wholesale, retail, and professional. But 
there are also residences, old churches, and old 
public buildings. On the immediate water-front, 
and for many years used as the custom house, stands 
the old Franciscan convent, erected during the last 
quarter of the 16th Century. It is a somewhat 
imposing pile, dominated by a high tower. I have 
not visited it for a number of years and do not know 
if its interior is available for visitors without some 
special introduction, but there is much worth seeing 
inside its walls, the flying buttresses of the super- 
structure, some old and interesting frescoes, and a 
system of dome construction that is quite remarkable. 
To the latter, my attention was first called by General 




CUSTOM HOUSE, HAVANA 

Formerly Franciscan Convent 
Begun 1574, finished 1591 



THE OLD HAVANA 63 

Ludlow, a distinguished engineer officer of the United 
States Army, then acting as governor of the city. 
To him belongs, although it is very rarely given, 
the credit for the cleansing of Havana during the 
First Intervention. He frequently visited the old 
convent just to see and study that interior dome 
construction. Immediately behind the Palace is the 
old convent of the Dominicans, less imposing but of 
about the same period as the Franciscan structure. It 
is now used as a high-school building. The Cathe- 
dral, a block to the northward of the Dominican 
convent building, is of a much later date, having 
been begun as recently as 1742. It was originally 
the convent of the Jesuits, but became the Cathedral 
in 1789. Many have believed, on what seems to be 
acceptable evidence, that here for more than a 
hundred years rested the bones of Christopher 
Columbus. He died in Valladolid in 1506, and was 
buried there. His remains were removed to the 
Carthusian Monastery, in Seville, in 15 13. From 
there they are said to have been taken, in 1536, to 
the city of Santo Domingo, where they remained 
until 1796, when they were brought to Havana and 
placed in a niche in the walls of the old Cathedral, 
there to remain until they were taken back to Spain 
in 1898. There is still an active dispute as to whether 
the bones removed from Santo Domingo to Havana 
were or were not those of Columbus. At all events, 
the urn supposed to contain them was in this building 
for a hundred years, below a marble slab showing a 



64 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

carving of the voyager holding a globe, with a 
finger pointing to the Caribbean. Beneath this was 
a legend that has been thus translated: 

oh! rest thou, image of the great colon, 

thousand centuries remain, guarded in the urn, 

and in the remembrance of our nation. 

In this neighborhood, to the east of the Plaza de 
Armas, on which the Palace fronts, is a structure 
known as El Templete. It has the appearance of 
the portico of an unfinished building, but it is a 
finished memorial, erected in 1828. The tradition 
is that on this spot there stood, in 15 19, an old 
ceiba tree under which the newly arrived settlers 
celebrated their first mass. The yellow Palace, for 
many years the official headquarters and the residence 
of successive Governors-General, stands opposite, 
and speaks for itself. In this building, somewhat 
devoid of architectural merit, much of Cuba's his- 
tory, for the last three-quarters of a century, has 
been written. The best time to see all this and much 
more that is to be seen, is the early morning, before 
the wheels begin to go around. The lights and 
shadows are then the best, and the streets are quieter 
and less crowded. The different points of interest 
are easily located by the various guide books ob- 
tainable, and the distances are not great. A cup 
of cafe con leche should precede the excursion. If 
one feels lazy, as one is quite apt to feel in the 
tropics and the sub-tropics, fairly comfortable open 



THE OLD HAVANA 65 

carriages are at all times available. With them, 
of course, a greater area can be covered and more 
places seen, though perhaps seen less satisfactorily. 
There is much to be seen in the early morning that 
is best seen in those hours, and much that is not 
seen later in the day. In all cities there is an early 
morning life and Havana is no exception. I confess 
to only a limited personal knowledge of it, but I 
have seen enough of it, and heard enough about it, 
to know that the waking-up of cities, including 
Havana, is an interesting process. I have, at least, 
had enough personal experience to be sure that the 
early morning air is delicious, the best of the day. 
I am not speaking of the unholy hours preceding 
daybreak, but of six to eight o'clock, which for those 
of us who are inclined to long evenings is also the 
best time to be in bed. The early morning church 
bells are a disturbance to which visitors do not 
readily adjust their morning naps. Mr. Samuel 
Hazard, who visited Cuba about the year 1870, and 
wrote quite entertainingly about it, left the following 
description of his experience in Havana: 

"Hardly has the day begun to break when the 
newly arrived traveller is startled from his delightful 
morning doze by the alarming sound of bells ringing 
from every part of the town. Without any particu- 
lar concert of adtion, and with very different sounds, 
they ring out on the still morning air, as though 
for a general conflagration, and the unfortunate travel- 
ler rushes frantically from his bed to inquire if there 



66 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

is any hope of safety from the flames which he 
imagines, from the noise made, must threaten the 
whole town. Imagine, O reader! in thy native 
town, every square with its church, every church 
with its tower, or maybe two or three of them, and 
in each particular tower a half-dozen large bells, no 
two of which sound alike; place the bell-ropes in 
the hands of some frantic man who pulls away, first 
with one hand and then the other, and you will 
get a very faint idea of your first awakening in 
Havana. Without apparent rhyme or reason, ding, 
dong, ding they go, every bell-ringer at each different 
church striving to see how much noise he can make, 
under the plea of bringing the faithful to their 
prayers at the early morning mass." 

The only conceivable advantage of these early 
bells is the fact that they turn out many a traveller 
at the hour when Havana is really at its best. Yet, 
as I read the descriptive tales left by those who 
wrote forty, fifty, and sixty years ago, I am struck 
by the fact, that, after all, the old Havana has 
changed but little. There are trolley lines, electric 
lights, and a few other so-called modern improve- 
ments, but there is still much of the old custom, the 
old atmosphere. The old wall, with its soldier- 
guarded gates, is gone, and there are a few modern 
buildings, but only a few, for which fact I always 
feel thankful, but the old city is much what it was 
when Mr. Ballou, and Mr. Dana, and Mr. Kimball, 
and numerous others wrote about it soon after 1850, 




BALCONIES IN OLD HAVANA 

STREET IN HAVANA 



THE OLD HAVANA 67 

and when Mr. Hazard wrote about it in 1870. The 
automobile is there now in large numbers, in place 
of the old volante, and there are asphalted streets 
in place of cobble-stones. The band plays in the 
evening in the Parque Central or at the Glorieta, 
instead of in the Plaza de Armas, but the band plays. 
The restaurants are still a prominent feature in 
Havana life, as they were then. The ladies wear 
hats instead of mantillas, but they buy hats on 
Calle Obispo just as and where their mothers and 
grandmothers bought mantillas. Bull-fighting is gone, 
presumably forever, but crowds flock to the base- 
ball grounds. The midday suspension of business 
continues, generally, and the afternoon parade, on 
foot and in carriages, remains one of the important 
functions of the day. There are many who know 
Havana, and love it, who pray diligently that it may 
be many years before the city is Americanized as, 
for instance, New Orleans has been. 

Most of the life of the city, as it is seen by most 
visitors, is outside the old city, and probably few 
know that any distinction is made, yet the line is 
drawn with fair clearness. There is a different ap- 
pearance in both streets and buildings. While there 
are shops on San Rafael and Galiano and elsewhere, 
the principal shopping district is in the old city, with 
Calle Obispo as its centre. They have tried, officially, 
to change the name of the street, but the old familiar 
name sticks and seems likely to stick for a long time 
yet. Far be it from a mere man to attempt analysis 



68 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

or description of such a place. He might tell an- 
other mere man where to buy a hat, a pair of shoes, 
or eyeglasses, or a necktie, or where to find a lawyer, 
but the finer points of shopping, there or elsewhere, 
are not properly for any masculine description. The 
ladies may be trusted to learn for themselves, and 
very quickly, all that they need or want to know about 
that phase of Havana's commerce. I am leaving 
much to the guide books that can afford space for 
all necessary information about churches, statues, 
and other objects of interest for visitors. Havana's 
retail merchants have their own way of trading, much 
as they do in many foreign countries, and in not 
a few stores in our own country. Prices are usually 
a question of the customer's ability to match the 
commercial shrewdness of the dealer. Much of the 
trade of visitors is now confined to the purchase 
of such articles as may be immediately needed and 
to a few souvenirs. One of the charms of the place 
is the cheap transportation. If you are tired, or 
in a hurry, there is always a coach near at hand that 
will take you where you wish to go, for a peseta, 
or a quarter, if within certain officially prescribed 
bounds. If you desire to go beyond those bounds, 
make a bargain with your driver or be prepared 
for trouble. Down in the old city are to be found 
several restaurants that are well worth visiting, for 
those who want good food. I shall not advertise 
the particular places, but they are well known. As 
the early morning is the best time to see the old 



THE OLD HAVANA 69 

city, the forenoon is the best time for shopping. 
Such an expedition may well be followed by the 
almuerzo, the midday breakfast or lunch, whichever 
one sees fit to call it, at one of these restaurants. 
After that, it is well to enjoy a midday siesta, in 
preparation for the afternoon function on the Prado 
and the Malecon. 



V 

THE NEW HAVANA 

^HE new Havana, the city outside the old 
wall, is about as old as Chicago but not 
nearly as tall. There is no reason why it 
should be. Here are wide streets and broad avenues, 
and real sidewalks, some of them about as wide as 
the entire street in the old city. About 1830, the 
region beyond the wall was held largely by Spaniards 
to whom grants of land had been made for one reason 
or another. These tradls were plantations, pastures, 
or unimproved lands, according to the fancy of the 
proprietor who usually lived in the city and enjoyed 
himself after the manner of his kind. Here and there, 
a straggling village of palm-leaf huts sprang up. 
The roads were rough tracks. To Governor-General 
Tacon seems due much of the credit for the im- 
provement beyond the walls. During his somewhat 
iron-handed rule several notable buildings were 
erected, some of them by his authority. The most 
notable feature of the district is the renowned Prado, 
a broad boulevard with a park between two drive- 
ways, running from the water-front, at the entrance 
to the harbor, southward for about a mile. A few 
years ago, rows of trees shaded the central parkway, 



THE NEW HAVANA 71 

but they were almost entirely wrecked by the hur- 
ricanes in 1906 and 19 10. 

A half mile or so from its northern end, the Prado 
runs along the west side of the Parque Central, the 
most notable of the numerous little squares of walks 
and trees and flowers. A block or two further on is 
a little park with an excellent statue, known as La 
India. Opposite that is another really beautiful 
park, from the western side of which runs a broad 
street that leads to the Paseo de Carlos Tercero, 
formerly the Paseo de Tacon, one of the monuments 
left to his own memory by one of Cuba's most noted 
Spanish rulers. The Paseo runs westward to El 
Castillo del Principe, originally a fortress but now 
a penitentiary. The Prado stops just beyond the 
companion parks, La India and Colon. These 
originally formed the Campo de Marte, laid out by 
General Tacon and, in his time, used as a military 
parade ground. In a way, the Parque Central is 
the centre of the city. It is almost that, geograph- 
ically, and perhaps quite that, socially. In its 
immediate vicinity are some of the leading hotels 
and the principal theatres. One of the latter, facing 
the park on its western side, across the Prado, is 
now known as the Nacional. Formerly it was the 
Tacon, a monument to that notable man. There is 
quite a story about that structure. It is somewhat 
too long for inclusion here, but it seems worth telling. 
The following is an abridgment of the tale as it is 
told in Mr. Ballou's History of Cuba, published in 



72 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

1854. Tacon was the Governor of the island from 
1834 to 1838. At that time, a certain man named 
Marti was eminent in the smuggling and piracy 
business, an industry in which many others were 
engaged. But Marti seems to have stood at the 
top of his profession, a man of skill and daring and 
evidently well supplied with brains. Tacon's efforts 
to capture him, or to break up his business, were 
entirely unsuccessful, and a large reward was offered 
for his body, alive or dead. Mr. Ballou tells the 
story in somewhat dramatic manner: 

"It was a dark, cloudy night in Havana, a few 
months after the announcement of the reward, when 
two sentinels were pacing backward and forward 
before the main entrance to the Governor's palace. 
A little before midnight, a man was watching them 
from behind a statue in the park, and after observing 
that the sentinels paced their brief walk so as to 
meet each other, and then turned their backs as they 
separated, leaving a brief moment in the interval 
when the eyes of both were turned away from the 
entrance, seemed to calculate upon passing them 
unobserved. It was an exceedingly delicate ma- 
noeuvre, and required great care and dexterity to 
efFedt it; but, at last, it was adroitly done, and 
the stranger sprang lightly through the entrance, 
secreting himself behind one of the pillars of the 
inner court. The sentinels paced on undisturbed. 
The figure which had thus stealthily effected an 
entrance, now sought the broad stairs that led to the 



THE NEW HAVANA 73 

Governor's suite, with a confidence that evinced a 
perfect knowledge of the place. A second guard- 
post was to be passed at the head of the stairs; but, 
assuming an air of authority, the stranger offered a 
cold military salute and passed forward, as though 
there was not the most distant question of his right 
to do so; and thus avoiding all suspicion in the 
guard's mind, he boldly entered the Governor's 
reception room unchallenged, and closed the door 
behind him." 

In his office, alone, the stranger found Tacon, who 
was naturally surprised at the appearance of an 
unannounced caller. He demanded to know who 
the visitor was, but a diredl answer was evaded. 
After referring to the matter of the reward offered 
for the discovery of Marti, and the pledge of im- 
munity to the discoverer, the caller demanded and 
obtained a verbal endorsement of the promise of 
immunity, under the Governor's word of honor, 
whatever might be the circumstances of his revela- 
tion. He then announced himself as the much-sought 
pirate and smuggler, Marti. Tacon was somewhat 
astounded, but he kept his word. Marti was held 
overnight, but "on the following day," the Ballou 
account proceeds, "one of the men-of-war that lay 
idly beneath the guns of Morro Castle suddenly 
became the scene of the utmost activity, and, before 
noon, had weighed her anchor, and was standing out 
into the gulf stream. Marti the smuggler was on 
board as her pilot; and faithfully did he guide the 



74 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

ship on the discharge of his treacherous business, 
revealing every haunt of the rovers, exposing their 
most valuable depots; and many a smuggling craft 
was taken and destroyed. The amount of money and 
property thus secured was very great." The con- 
temptible job of betraying his former companions 
and followers being successfully accomplished, Marti 
returned with the ships, and claimed his reward from 
Tacon. The General, according to his word of honor, 
gave Marti a full and unconditional pardon for all 
his past offences, and an order on the treasury for 
the amount of the reward offered. The latter was 
declined but, in lieu of the sum, Marti asked for and 
obtained a monopoly of the right to sell fish in 
Havana. He offered to build, at his own expense, 
a public market of stone, that should, after a speci- 
fied term of years, revert to the government, "with 
all right and the title to the fishery." This struck 
Tacon as a good business proposition; he saved to 
his treasury the important sum of the reward and, 
after a time, the city would own a valuable fish- 
market. He agreed to the plan. Marti thereupon 
went into the fish business, made huge profits, and 
became, so the story goes, the richest man in the 
island. After a time, being burdened with wealth, 
he looked about for means of increasing his income. 
So he asked for and obtained a monopoly of the 
theatre business in Havana, promising to build one of 
the largest and finest theatres in the world. The 
result of the enterprise was the present Nacional 



THE NEW HAVANA 75 

theatre, for many years regarded as second only to 
the Grand theatre in Milan. But it was named 
the Tacon. Its special attraction was internal; its 
exterior was far from imposing. It has recently 
been considerably glorified. Having thus halted 
for the story of the theatre, we may return to the 
Prado on which it fronts. Here, Havana society 
used to gather every afternoon to drive, walk, and 
talk. The afternoon paseo was and still is the great 
event of the day, the great social function of the 
city. At the time of my first visit, in 1899, there 
was no Malecon drive along the shore to the west- 
ward. That enterprise was begun during the First 
Intervention, and continued by succeeding adminis- 
trations. In the earlier days, the route for driving 
was down the east side of the Prado, between the 
Parque Central and the Carcel, and up the west 
side, around and around, up and down, with bows 
and smiles to acquaintances met or passed, and, 
probably, gossip about the strangers. Many horse- 
men appeared in the procession, and the central 
promenade was thronged with those who walked, 
either because they preferred to or because they 
could not afford to ride around and around. In 
the Parque Central were other walkers, chatting 
groups, and lookers-on. Some days the band played. 
Then the Prado was extended to the water-front; 
the glorieta was erected; and that became another 
centre for chatterers and watchers. The building of 
the Malecon extended the range of the driveway. 



76 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

This afternoon function is an old established institu- 
tion and a good one. It may not compare favorably 
with the drive in some of our parks in this country, 
but it is the best substitute possible in Havana. 
Indulgence in ices, cooling drinks, chocolate, or other 
refections, during this daily ceremony, is fairly common 
but by no means a general practice. The afternoon 
tea habit has not yet seized upon Havana. The ices 
are almost invariably excellent. Some of them are 
prepared from native fruit flavors that are quite 
unknown here. The guanabana ice is particularly 
to be recommended. All such matters are quite 
individual, but a decoction called chocolate Espanol 
is also to be recommended. It is served hot, too 
thick to drink, and is to be taken with a spoon, to 
the accompaniment of cake. It is highly nourishing 
as well as palatable. There is a wide variety of 
"soft drinks," made with oranges, limes, or other 
fruits, and the orchata, made from almonds, and the 
products of American soda fountains, but there is 
little use of the high-ball or the cocktail except 
by Americans. 

The Cubans are an exceedingly temperate people. 
Wine is used by all classes, and aguadiente, the native 
rum, is consumed in considerable quantity, but the 
Cuban rarely drinks to excess. I recall an experience 
during the earlier years. I was asked to write a 
series of articles on the use of intoxicants in the 
island, for a temperance publication in this country. 
My first article so offended the publishers that they 




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THE NEW HAVANA 77 

declined to print it, and cancelled the order for 
the rest of the series. It was perhaps somewhat 
improper, but in that article I summed up the situa- 
tion by stating that "the temperance question in 
Cuba is only a question of how soon we succeed in 
converting them into a nation of drunkards." Beer is 
used, both imported and of local manufacture. Gin, 
brandy, and anisette, cordials and liqueurs are all used 
to some but moderate extent, but intoxication is 
quite rare. One fluid extract I particularly recom- 
mend, that is the milk of the cocoanut, the green 
nut. Much, however, depends upon the cocoanut. 
Properly ripened, the "milk" is delicious, cooling 
and wholesome, more so perhaps on a country journey 
than in the city. The nut not fully ripened gives 
the milk, or what is locally called the "water," 
an unpleasant, woody taste. I have experimented 
with it in different parts of the world, in the Philip- 
pines, Ceylon, and elsewhere, and have found it 
wholesome and refreshing in all places. 

The houses in the new Havana are, on the whole, 
vastly more cheerful than are the dwellings in the old 
city. They are of the same general architectural 
type, but because of the wider streets, more air and 
sunshine gets into them. Some of the best and most 
costly are along the Prado. A Cuban house interior 
generally impresses an American as lacking in home- 
like quality. Some of the best are richly adorned, 
but there is a certain bareness and an absence of 
color. As is usual with customs unlike our own, and 



78 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

which we are therefore prone to regard as inferior 
to ours, there are excellent reasons for Cuban interior 
decoration, or rather the lack of it. A little experi- 
ence, or even a little reflection, shows clearly the 
impossibility of anything resembling American house 
decoration in such a climate as that of Cuba. Our 
warm colors, hangings, upholstered furniture, rugs, 
and much else that we regard as essential in northern 
latitudes, would be utterly unendurable in Cuba. 
There, the marble or tiled floors, the cool tones of 
wall and ceiling, and the furniture of wood and 
cane, are not only altogether fitting but as well 
altogether necessary. Our glass windows would only 
serve to increase heat and shut out air. As some 
barrier is necessary to keep passers, even Americans, 
from intrusive entrance by the windows whose 
bottoms are at floor level, the system of iron bars 
or elaborate grille work is adopted. Few Americans 
see much, if anything, of Cuban home life except as 
they see it through these barriers as they pass. It 
is not the custom of the country to invite promiscuous 
or casual acquaintances to call. It is even less the 
custom there than it is with us. A book about 
Cuba, published a few years ago, gives a somewhat 
extended account of what is called "home life," but 
it is the home life of workmen and people who do 
laundry work to eke out a meagre living. It is not 
even the life of fairly paid artisans, or of people of 
modest but comfortable income. It is no more a 
proper description of the domestic life of the island 



THE NEW HAVANA 79 

than would be a presentation of the life in the palaces 
of the wealthy. Such attempts at description are 
almost invariably a mistake, conveying, whether 
from purpose or from indifference to truth, a false 
impression. Domestic economy and household man- 
agement vary in Cuba as they vary in the United 
States, in France, England, Japan, or Mexico. The 
selection of an individual home, or of several, as a 
basis for description, in Cuba or anywhere else, can 
only result in a piclure badly out of drawing and quite 
misleading. 

There are Cuban homes, as there are American 
homes, that are slatternly and badly managed, and 
there are Cuban homes that are as spick and span 
and as orderly in their administration as any home 
in this country. Their customs, as are ours, are the 
result of environment and tradition. To some of 
us, a redlangle of six or eight rocking-chairs, placed 
in the centre of a room, in which family and visitors 
sit and rock while they talk, may seem curious, but 
it is a custom that we may not criticize either with 
fairness or common decency. The same may be 
said of the not uncommon custom of using a part of 
the street floor of the house as a stable. It is an 
old custom, brought from Spain. But I have wan- 
dered from description to incident. I have no in- 
tention to attempt a description of Cuban home life, 
beyond saying that I have been a guest in costly 
homes in the city and in the little palm-leaf "shacks" 
of peasants, and have invariably found in both, and 



8o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

in the homes of intermediate classes, only cordial 
hospitality and gracious courtesy. Those who have 
found anything different have carried it with them in 
their own attitude toward their hosts. Many of us, 
probably most of us, in the United States, make a 
sort of fetich of the privacy of what we call our home 
life. We are encased in walls of wood or masonry, 
with blinds, curtains, or shades at our windows. It 
might be supposed that we wanted to hide, that 
there was something of which to be ashamed. It 
might at least be so interpreted by one unfamiliar 
with our ways. It is only, like the open domestic 
life in Cuba, a custom, a habit of long standing. 
Certainly, much of the domestic life of Cuba is open. 
The mistress of the house chides a servant, rebukes 
or comforts a child, sits with her embroidery, chaffers 
with an itinerant merchant or with the clerk from 
a store, all in plain sight and hearing of the passer-by. 
What everyone does, no one notices. The customs 
of any country are curious only to those from other 
countries where customs are different. Our ways of 
life are quite as curious to others as are their ways 
to us. We are quite blind to that fact chiefly because 
of an absurd conviction of the immense superiority of 
our ways. We do not stop to consider reasons for 
differences. A cup of coffee on an American break- 
fast table usually consists of about four parts coffee 
and one part milk or cream. Most Cubans usually 
reverse these percentages. There is a good reason 
for it. In our climate, we do not need the large 



THE NEW HAVANA 81 

open doors and windows, the high ceilings, and the 
full and free ventilation that make life endurable 
in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Their system 
here would be as impossible as would be our system 
there. Houses in Cuba like those of an American 
city or town would make life a miserable burden. 
The publicity, or semi-publicity, of Cuban home life 
is a necessary result of conditions. It is, naturally, 
more in evidence in the city proper, where the houses, 
abutting immediately on the street, as do most of 
our city houses, are built, as ours are, in solid rows. 
We avoid a good deal of publicity by piling our 
homes on top of each other, and by elevators and 
stair-climbing. 

The location of a residence in Havana gives no 
special idea of the wealth or the social standing of 
those who occupy it. Not a few well-to-do people 
still live in the old city, where the streets are narrow 
and where business is trying to crowd out everything 
except itself. The home in that quarter may be in 
a block in which a number of buildings are residences, 
or it may stand with a warehouse on one side and 
a workshop on the other. A few people of unques- 
tionable social position still live in buildings in which 
the street floor is a store or an office, There is noth- 
ing curious about this. In many American cities, 
old families have clung to old homes, and not a 
few new families have, from one reason or another, 
occupied similar quarters. Such a residence may 
not conform to modern social ideas and standards, 



82 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

but there are Americans in this country, as well as 
Cubans and Spaniards in Havana, who can afford to 
ignore those standards. The same is true of many 
who live in the newer city, outside the old walls. 
There as here, business encroaches on many streets 
formerly strictly residential. This holds in the newer 
part of the city as well as in the old part. A number 
of streets there are, for a part of their length, quite 
given over to business. Even the Prado itself is 
the victim of commercial invasion. What was once one 
of the finest residences in the city, the old Aldama 
place fronting on the Campo de Marte, is now a 
cigar factory. A little beyond it is the Tacon mar- 
ket, occupying an entire block. Stores and shops 
surround it. The old avenue leading to the once 
fashionable Cerro, and to the only less fashionable 
Jesus del Monte, is now a business street. Another 
business street leads out of the Parque Central, 
alongside the former Tacon theatre. The broad 
Calzada de Galiano, once a fashionable residence 
street, is now largely commercial. While less pictur- 
esque than some parts of the old city within the walls, 
the most attractive part of Havana is undoubtedly 
the section of El Vedado, the westward extension 
along the shore. Here are broad streets, trees, 
gardens, and many beautiful and costly dwellings. 
This is really the modern Havana. A part of it 
is only a little above sea-level, and behind that 
strip is a hill. A few years ago, only a small num- 
ber of houses were on the hillside or the hilltop. 



THE NEW HAVANA 83 

Now, it is well built over with modern houses. 
The architectural type is generally retained, and it 
is rather a pity that there should be even what 
variation there is. El Vedado is the region of the 
wealthy and the well-to-do, with a large percentage 
of foreigners. It has its social ways, very much as 
other places have, in this country, in France, Hong 
Kong, or Honolulu. They are not quite our ways, 
but they are a result of conditions, just as ours 
are. 

On the hill, a little back of El Vedado, are two 
"points of interest " for visitors; the old fortress, 
el Castillo del Principe, and the cemetery. In the 
latter are some notable monuments. One is known 
as the Firemen's Monument. For many years, 
Havana has had, supplementary to its municipal 
organization, a volunteer firemen's corps. In various 
ways the latter resembles a number of military 
organizations in the United States. It is at once a 
somewhat exclusive social club and a practical force. 
Membership is a social distinction. If you are in 
Havana and see men in admirably tailored uniforms 
and fire helmets, rushing in a particular direction 
in cabs, carriages or automobiles, you may know 
that they are members of the Bomberos del Comercio 
on their way to a conflagration. Most excellent real 
work they have done again and again in time of 
fire and flood. On parade, they look exceedingly 
dapper with their helmets, uniforms, boots and 
equipment, somewhat too dandified even to suggest 



84 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

any smoke other than that of cigars or cigarettes. 
But they are the "real thing in smoke-eaters" when 
they get to work. They have a long list of heroic 
deeds on their records. The monument in Colon 
Cemetery commemorates one of those deeds. In an 
extensive and dangerous fire, in May, 1890, thirty of 
these men lost their lives. A few years later, this 
beautiful and costly shaft was erected, by private 
subscription, as a tribute to their valor and devo- 
tion. Another shaft, perhaps no less notable, com- 
memorates a deplorable and unpardonable event. 
A number of medical students, mere boys, in the 
University of Havana, were charged with defa- 
cing the tomb of a Spanish officer who had been 
killed by a Cuban in a political quarrel. At its 
worst, it was a boyish prank, demanding rebuke or 
even some mild punishment. Later evidence in- 
dicates that while there was a demonstration there 
was no defacement of the vault. Forty-two students 
were arrested as participants, tried by court-martial, 
and sentenced to be shot. Eight of them were shot 
at La Punta, at the foot of the Prado near the sea- 
front, and the remainder sentenced to imprisonment 
for life. All of these, I believe, were afterward 
released. The Students' Monument expresses the 
feeling of the Cubans in the matter, a noble memorial. 
There are numerous other shafts and memorials that 
are notable and interesting. A number of Cuba's 
leaders, Maximo Gomez, Calixto Garcia, and others, 
are buried in this cemetery. 



THE NEW HAVANA 85 

Further on, to the southeast, are other sections 
of the new Havana, the districts of Cerro and Jesus 
del Monte. El Vedado has largely supplanted these 
neighborhoods as the "court end" of the city. Many 
of the fine old residences of forty or fifty years ago 
still remain, but most of them are now closely sur- 
rounded by the more modest homes of a less aristo- 
cratic group. A few gardens remain to suggest what 
they were in the earlier days. Still further out, in 
the west-and-south quarter-circle, are little towns, 
villages, and hamlets, typically Cuban, with here 
and there the more imposing estate of planter or 
proprietor. But, far the greater number of visitors, 
perhaps with greater reason, find more of charm and 
interest in the city itself than in the suburbs or the 
surrounding country. The enjoyment of unfamiliar 
places is altogether personal. There are many who 
really see nothing; they come away from a brief 
visit with only a confusion of vague recollections of 
sights and sounds, of brief inspection of buildings 
about which they knew nothing, of the big, yellow 
Palace, of this church and that, of the Morro and 
the harbor, of sunny days, and of late afternoons 
along the Prado and the Malecon. To me, Havana 
is losing its greatest charm through an excess of 
Americanization, slowly but steadily taking from the 
place much of the individuality that made it most 
attractive. It will be a long time before that is 
entirely lost, but five-story office buildings, auto- 
mobiles in the afternoon parade, steaks or ham and 



86 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

eggs at an eight or nine o'clock breakfast, and all 
kinds of indescribable hats in place of dainty and 
graceful mantillas, seem to me a detraction, like 
bay-windows and porticos added to an old colonial 
mansion. 




VI 

AROUND THE ISLAND 

HUNDRED years ago, the Cubans travelled 
from place to place about the island, just as 
our ancestors did in this country, by water 
and over rough trails few of which could, with 
any approach to correctness, be described as roads. 
It was not until about a hundred years ago that we, 
in this country, began to build anything even re- 
motely resembling a modern highway. Our towns 
and cities were on the seaboard or on the banks of 
rivers navigable for vessels of size sufficient for their 
purposes. Commodities carried to or brought from 
places not so located were dragged in stoutly built 
wagons over routes the best of which was worse 
than the worst to be found anywhere today. Because 
real road-making in Cuba is quite a modern institu- 
tion, an enterprise to which, in their phrase, the 
Spanish Government did not "dedicate" itself, the 
Cuban wagons and carts of today are chiefly those 
of the older time. They are heavy, cumbrous affairs 
with large wheels, a diameter necessitated by the 
deep ruts through which a passage was made. A 
smaller wheel would soon have been "hub-deep" 
and hopelessly stuck. So, too, with the carriages 



88 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

of the nabobs. The poorer people, when they 
travelled at all, went on foot or on horseback, as 
our ancestors did. The nabobs had their volantes, 
still occasionally, but with increasing rarity, seen in 
some parts of the island. Forty years ago, such 
vehicles, only a little changed from the original 
type, were common enough in Havana itself. About 
that time, or a few years earlier, the four-wheeler 
began to supplant them for city use. 

There is a technical difference between the original 
type of volante and its successor which, though still 
called a volante was properly called a quitrin. The 
only real difference was that the top of the quitrin 
was collapsible, and could be lowered when desirable, 
while the top of the volante was not. I have ridden 
in these affairs, I cannot say comfortably, over roads 
that would have been quite impossible for any other 
wheeled vehicle. At the back, and somewhat behind 
the body were two wheels, six feet in diameter. 
From the axle, two shafts projected for a distance, 
if memory serves me, of some twelve or fifteen feet. 
A little forward of the axle, the body, not unlike 
the old-fashioned American chaise, was suspended 
on stout leather straps serving as springs. Away off 
in front, at the end of the shafts, was a horse on 
which the driver rode in a heavy and clumsy saddle. 
For long-distance travel, or for particularly rough 
roads, a second horse was added, alongside the shaft 
horse, and sometimes a third animal. The motion 
was pleasant enough over the occasional smooth 



AROUND THE ISLAND 89 

places, but the usual motion was much like that of 
a cork in a whirlpool, or of a small boat in a choppy 
sea. Little attention was paid to rocks or ruts; it 
was almost impossible to capsize the thing. One 
wheel might be two feet or more higher than the 
other, whereupon the rider on the upper side would 
be piled on top of the rider or riders on the lower 
side, but there was always a fair distribution of this 
favor. The rocks and ruts were not always on the 
same side of the road. The safety from overturn 
was in the long shafts which allowed free play. In 
the older days, say sixty or seventy years ago, the 
volante or the quitrin was an outward and visible 
sign of a well-lined pocket-book. It indicated the 
possessor as a man of wealth, probably a rich planter 
who needed such a vehicle to carry him and his family 
from their mansion in the city to their perhaps quite 
as costly home on the plantation. The calisero, or 
driver, was dressed in a costume truly gorgeous, the 
horses were of the best, and the vehicle itself may 
have cost two thousand dollars or more. The opera- 
tion of such a contrivance, extending, from the rear 
of the wheels to the horse's nose, for twenty feet or 
more, in the narrow streets of the old city, was a 
scientific problem, particularly in turning corners. 

Cuba was early in the field with a railway. In 
1830, the United States had only thirty-two miles of 
line, the beginning of its present enormous system. 
Cuba's first railway was opened to traffic in Novem- 
ber, 1837. It was a forty-five mile line connecting 



9 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

Havana with the town of Guines, southeast of the 
city. While official permission was, of course, neces- 
sary before the work could be undertaken, it was in 
fact a Cuban enterprise, due to the activity of the 
Junta de Fomento, or Society for Improvement. It 
was built with capital obtained in London, the con- 
struction being in charge of Mr. Alfred Cruger, an 
American engineer. Ten years later there were nearly 
three hundred miles of line. At the beginning of 
the American occupation, in 1899, there were about 
nine-hundred and fifty miles. There are now more 
than 2,000 miles of public service line in operation, 
and in addition there are many hundreds of miles 
of private lines on the sugar estates. Several cities 
have trolley lines. For some years after the Ameri- 
can occupation, as before that experience, there was 
only a water-and-rail connection, or an all-water 
route, between the eastern and western sections of 
the island. The usual route from Havana to Santiago 
was by rail to Batabano or to Cienfuegos, and thence 
by steamer. The alternative was an all-water route, 
consuming several days, by steamer along the north 
coast, with halts at different ports, and around the 
eastern end of the island to the destination. It is 
now an all-rail run of twenty-four hours. The project 
for a "spinal railway" from one end of the island to 
the other had been under consideration for many 
years. The configuration lent itself excellently to 
such a system, and not at all well to any other. A 
railway map of such a system shows a line, generally, 



AROUND THE ISLAND 91 

through the middle of the island along its length, 
with numerous branch lines running north and south 
to the various cities and ports on the coast. The 
plan, broadly, is being carried out. A combination 
of existing lines afforded a route to the city of Santa 
Clara. From these eastward, the Cuba Company, 
commonly known as the Van Home road, completed 
a through line in 1902. In its beginning, it was a 
highly ambitious scheme, involving the building of 
many towns along the way, the ereclion of many 
sugar mills, and the creation of a commercial city, 
at Nipe Bay, that would leave Havana in the back- 
number class. Axil that called for a sum of money not 
then and not now available. But the "spinal rail- 
road " was built, and from it a number of radiating 
lines have been built, to Sancti Spiritus, Manzanillo, 
Nipe Bay, and to Guantanamo. About the only 
places on the island, really worth seeing, with the 
exception of Trinidad and Baracoa, can now be 
reached by a fairly comfortable railway journey. 

In most of the larger cities of the island, a half 
dozen or so of them, the traveller is made fairly 
comfortable and is almost invariably well fed. But 
any question of physical comfort in hotels, more 
particularly in country hotels, raises a question of 
standards. As Touchstone remarked, when in the 
forest of Arden, "Travellers must be content." Those 
who are not ready to make themselves so, no matter 
what the surroundings, should stay at home, which, 
Touchstone also remarked, "is a better place." If 



92 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

the standard is the ostentatious structure of the larger 
cities of this country, with its elaborate menu and 
its systematized service, there will doubtless be cause 
for complaint. So will there be if the standard is 
the quiet, cleanly inn of many towns in this country 
and in parts of Europe. The larger towns and vil- 
lages of the island have a posada in which food and 
lodging may be obtained; the smaller places may or 
may not have "a place to stay." Cuba is not a land 
in which commercial travellers swarm everywhere, 
demanding comfort and willing to pay a reasonable 
price for it. However, few travellers and fewer 
tourists have any inclination to depart from known 
and beaten paths, or any reason for doing so. Nor 
does a fairly thorough inspection of the island neces- 
sitate any halting in out-of-the-way places where there 
is not even an imitation of an inn. All that one 
needs to see, and all that most care to see, can be 
seen in little tours, for a day, from the larger cities. 
Yet if one wants to wander a little in the by-paths, 
it is easy enough to do so. 

What one sees or does in Cuba will depend mainly 
upon the purpose of the visit, and upon the violence 
of the individual mania for seeing as many places as 
possible. If the object is merely an excursion or an 
escape from the rigors of a northern winter, there 
is no occasion for wandering out of sight of the 
capital city. There is more to see and more to do 
in Havana than there is in all the rest of the island. 
Nor is there much to be seen elsewhere that cannot 



AROUND THE ISLAND 93 

be seen in the immediate vicinity of that city. This, 
of course, does not cover the matter of scenery. There 
are no mountains, no forest jungles in that neighbor- 
hood, but forests in Cuba are not particularly inter- 
esting, and even the mountains of Oriente are no 
more beautiful or majestic than are our own summits, 
our own White Hills of New Hampshire, the Adiron- 
dack^, the Blue Ridge, the Alleghenies, the Rockies, 
and the Sierras. The charm of Cuba, and it is 
extremely charming, is not its special "points of 
interest. " It is rather a general impression, a com- 
bination of soft and genial climate with varying lights 
and shades and colors. Even after much experience 
there, I am not yet quite ready either to admit or 
to deny that the island, taken as a whole, is either 
beautiful or picturesque, and yet there is much of 
both. Attention is rarely challenged by the sublime 
or the majestic, but is often arrested by some play 
of light and shade. Cuban villages, with few ex- 
ceptions, are unattractive, although there is not 
infrequently some particular building, usually a 
church, that calls for a second look or a careful 
examination. Most of these little communities con- 
sist of a row of low and ungraceful structures border- 
ing the highway. They are usually extended by 
building on at the ends. If the town street gets 
undesirably long, a second street or a third will be 
made, on one or both sides of the main street, and 
thus the town acquires breadth as well as length. 
The houses are built immediately upon the roadside, 



94 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

and sidewalks are quite unusual. Nor, until the 
place becomes a large town or a small city, is there, 
in most cases, any attempt at decoration by means 
of shade trees. A tree may be left if there happened 
to be one when the village was born, but rarely do 
the inhabitants turn their streets into tree-shaded 
avenues. There would be an excellent opportunity 
for the activities of Village Improvement Societies 
in Cuba, if it were not for the fact that such tree- 
planting would involve pushing all the houses ten 
or fifteen feet back from the roadside. 

I have never studied the system of town building 
in the island, yet it is presumable that there was 
some such system. In the larger places, there is 
usually a central park around which are arranged the 
church, the public buildings, and the stores. Whether 
these were so constructed from an original plan, or 
whether they are an evolution, along a general plan, 
from the long, single street, I do not know. I am 
inclined to believe that the former was the case, and 
that it followed the location of a church. The custom 
is, of course, of Spanish origin, and is common 
throughout the greater part of Latin America. It 
finds a fair parallel in our own country custom, by 
no means infrequent, of an open "green" or common 
in front of the village church and the town hall. 
Tree-setting along the Cuban highways, more par- 
ticularly in the neighborhood of the cities, is not at 
all unusual, and some of these shaded roads are 
exceedingly charming. Some are entirely over-arched 



AROUND THE ISLAND 95 

by laurel trees and the gorgeous flamboyan, making 
long tunnels of shade "through whose broken roof 
the sky looks in." Evidently the Spanish authorities 
were too much interested in making money and 
enjoying themselves in the cities to care very much 
for what happened to the Cubans in the villages, 
as long as they paid the money that filled the official 
pocket and paid for the official entertainment, and 
the Cubans were too busy getting that money to have 
much time for village improvement. The Spaniards, 
following their home custom, might decorate a military 
highway to some extent, but the rough trail over 
which the peasant carried his little crop did not 
concern them. That was quite the business of the 
peasant who had neither the time nor money to do 
anything about it. 

The question of good roads in Cuba is very much 
what it is in this country. Cuba needs more good 
roads than its people can afford to build; so does the 
United States. At the time of the American occu- 
pation, in 1899, there were only 160 miles of im- 
proved highway in the entire island. Of this, 85 
miles were in Havana Province, and 75 miles in 
Pinar del Rio. The remainder of the island had 
none. Some work was done during the First Inter- 
vention and more was done under the Palma govern- 
ment. At the time of the Second Intervention, 
there were about 380 miles. That is, 'the United 
States and the Cuban Republic built, in six years, 
nearly 40 per cent, more highway than the Spanish 



96 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

authorities built in four hundred years. During the 
Palma regime, plans were drawn for an extensive 
road system, to be carried out as rapidly as the 
financial resources permitted. Not unlike similar 
proceedings in this country, in river and harbor 
work and public buildings, politics came into the 
matter and, like our own under similar circumstances, 
each Congressman insisted that some of such work 
as could immediately be undertaken, some of the 
money that could be immediately spent, should 
benefit his particular district. The result was that 
what was done by the Cubans was somewhat scat- 
tered, short stretches built here and there, new 
bridges built when there might or might not be a 
usable road to them. The Cuban plan involved, for 
its completion, a period of years and a large appro- 
priation. It called for comparatively small yearly 
appropriations for many roads, for more than four 
hundred different projects. Then came the Second 
Intervention, in 1906, with what has seemed to many 
of us an utterly unwise and unwarranted expenditure 
for the completion of certain selected projects included 
in the Cuban plan. It may be granted that the roads 
were needed, some of them very much needed, but 
there are thousands of miles of unconstructed but 
much needed roads in the United States. Yet, in 
this country, Federal, State, county, and town 
treasuries are not drained to their last dollar, and 
their credit strained, to build those roads. From 
the drain on its financial resources, the island will 



AROUND THE ISLAND 97 

recover, but the misfortune appears in the setting 
of a standard for Federal expenditure, in its total 
for all purposes amounting to about #40,000,000 a 
year, far beyond the reasonable or proper bearing 
power of the island. But the work was done, the 
money spent, and the Cubans were committed to 
more work and to further expenditure. I find no 
data showing with exactness the mileage completed 
by the Magoon government, which came to an end 
in January, 1909, but a Cuban official report made 
at the end of 1910 shows that the combined activities 
of the respective administrations, Spanish, American, 
and Cuban, had given the island, at that time, 
practically a thousand miles of improved highway, 
distributed throughout the island. 

To see the real Cuba, one must get into the coun- 
try. Havana is the principal city, and for many it 
is the most interesting place on the island, but it is 
no more Cuba than Paris is France or than New 
York is the United States. The real Cuba is rural; 
the real Cuban is a countryman, a man of the soil. 
If he is rich, he desires to measure his possessions 
in caballerias of 33 \ acres; if poor, in he Clare as of 
2j acres. I do not recall any Cuban cartoon repre- 
senting the Cuban people that was not a picture of 
the peasant, the guajiro. Cuba, as a political organ- 
ism, is shown as a quite charming senorita, but el 
pueblo Cubano, the Cuban people, are shown as the 
man of the fields. With the present equipment of 
railroads, trolley lines, automobile busses, and high- 



98 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

ways, little excursions are easily made in a day. The 
railways, trolleys, and automobile busses are unsatis- 
factory means of locomotion for sight-seeing. The 
passenger is rushed past the very sights that would 
be of the greatest interest. To most of us, a private 
hired automobile is open to the very serious objection 
of its expensiveness, an item that may sometimes 
be reduced by division. It has been my good fortune 
in more recent years to be whirled around in cars 
belonging to friends but my favorite trip in earlier 
days is, I presume, still open to those who may care 
to make it. I have recommended it to many, and 
have taken a number with me over the route. 

It is an easy one-day excursion of about sixty 
miles, by rail to Guanajay, by carriage to Marianao, 
and return to Havana by rail. Morning trains 
run to Guanajay, through a region generally attractive 
and certainly interesting to the novice, by way of 
Rincon and San Antonio de los Bafios, a somewhat 
roundabout route, but giving a very good idea of 
the country, its plantations, villages, and peasant 
homes. At Guanajay, an early lunch, or a late 
breakfast, may be obtained at the hotel, before or 
after an inspection of the town itself, a typical place 
with its little central park, its old church, and typical 
residences. Inquiry regarding the transportation to 
Marianao by carriage should not be too direct. It 
should be treated as a mere possibility depending 
upon a reasonable charge. I have sometimes spent 
a very pleasant hour in intermittent bargaining with 



AROUND THE ISLAND 99 

the competitors for the job, although knowing very 
well what I would pay and what they would finally 
accept. Amiably conducted, as such discussions 
should be in Cuba, the chaffering becomes a matter 
of mutual entertainment. A bargain concluded, a 
start may be made about noon for a drive over a 
good road, through a series of typical villages, to 
Marianao, in time for a late afternoon train to 
Havana, reaching there in ample time for dinner. 
Along the road from Guanajay to Marianao, Maceo 
swept with ruthless hand in 1896, destroying Spanish 
property. Here the Spaniards, no less ruthless, 
destroyed the property of Cubans. It is now a 
region of peaceful industry, and little or nothing 
remains to indicate its condition when I first saw it. 
The little villages along the way were in ruins, the 
fields were uncultivated, and there were no cattle. 
At intervals there stood the walls of what had been 
beautiful country estates. Only one of many was 
left standing. At intervals, also, stood the Spanish 
blockhouses. All along that route, in 1906, were 
the insurreclos of the unfortunate experience of that 
year. In the village of Caimito, a short distance 
from Guanajay, along that road, I visited Pino 
Guerra at his then headquarters when he and his 
forces so menaced Havana that Secretary Taft, in 
his capacity of Peace Commissioner, ordered their 
withdrawal to a greater distance. The trip by rail 
and road, exhibits most of Cuba's special character- 
istics. There are fields of sugar cane and fields of 



ioo CUBA OLD AND NEW 

tobacco, country villages and peasant homes, fruits 
and vegetables, ceiba trees, royal palms, cocoanut 
palms, and mango trees. There is no other trip, 
as easily made, where so much can be seen. But 
there are other excursions in the vicinity, for many 
reasons best made by carriage or by private hired 
automobile. Within fifteen miles or so of the city, 
are places like Calvario, Bejucal, and Managua, all 
reached by good highways through interesting and 
typical country, and all well illustrating the real life 
of the real Cubans. It was in the vicinity of those 
places that Maximo Gomez operated in 1895 and 
1896, terrorizing Havana by menacing it from the 
south and the east while Maceo threatened it from 
the west. Another short and pleasant trip can be 
made around the head of the harbor to Guanabacoa, 
and thence to Cojimar. Another interesting and 
easily reached point is Guines, a good example of 
places of its size and class. 

Of Cuba's larger cities, there are a score that would 
demand attention in a guide-book. Just as there is 
a certain similarity in most American cities, in that 
they are collections of business and residence buildings 
of generally similar architecture, so is there a certain 
sameness in most of Cuba's cities. To see two or 
three of them is to get a general idea of all, although 
each has its particular features, some particular 
building, or some special charm of surroundings. 
The most difficult of access are Baracoa, the oldest 
city of the island, and Trinidad, founded only a few 



AROUND THE ISLAND 101 

years later. Glancing at some of these places, in 
their order from west to east, the first is Pinar del 
Rio, a comparatively modern city, dating really 
from the second half of the 18th Century. It owes 
its past and its present importance to its location 
as a centre of the tobacco region of the Vuelta Abajo. 
From comfortable headquarters here, excursions can 
be made, by rail or road, through what is perhaps 
the most attractive, and not the least interesting 
section of the island. To the north are the Organ 
Mountains and the picturesque town of Vinales, one 
of the most charming spots, in point of scenery, in 
Cuba. To the west, by rail, is Guane, the oldest 
settlement in western Cuba, and all around are 
beautiful hills and cultivated valleys. Eastward 
from Havana, the first city of importance is Matanzas. 
Here is much to interest and much to charm, the 
city itself, its harbor, its two rivers, the famous 
valley of the Yumuri, and the caves of Bellamar. 
The city, founded in 1693, lies along the shore of 
the bay and rises to the higher ground of the hills 
behind it. It lies about sixty miles from Havana, 
and is easily reached by rail or by automobile. 
The next city in order, also on the north coast, is 
Cardenas, a modern place, settled in 1828, and owing 
its importance to its convenience as a shipping port 
for the numerous sugar estates in its vicinity, an 
importance now somewhat modified by the facilities 
for rail shipment to other harbors. Seventy-five 
miles or so further eastward is Sagua la Grande, 



102 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

another point of former convenience as a shipping 
point for sugar. The city itself is located on a river, 
or estuary, some ten or twelve miles from its mouth. 
Forty miles or so further on are Remedios and 
Caibarien, a few miles apart, the latter on the coast 
and the former a few miles inland. Caibarien, like 
Cardenas and Sagua, is chiefly notable as a sugar 
port, while Remedios is the centre of one of the great 
tobacco districts, producing a leaf of good quality 
but generally inferior to the Partidos of Havana 
Province, and quite inferior to the famous Vuelta 
Abajo. Southward of this region, and about midway 
the width of the island, somewhat more than two 
hundred miles eastward of Havana, is the city of 
Santa Clara, better known in the island as Villa 
Clara. The city dates its existence from 1689. It 
lies surrounded by rolling hills and expansive valleys, 
but in the absence of extensive plantations in its 
immediate environs, one is led to wonder just why 
so pleasant a place should be there, and why it should 
have reached its present proportions. For the tour- 
ist who wants to "see it all," it is an excellent and 
most comfortable central headquarters. 

From Villa Clara it is only a short run to Cien- 
fuegos, the "city of a hundred fires," a modern 
place, only about a hundred years old. There is 
every probability that Columbus entered the harbor 
in 1494, and perhaps no less probability that 
Ocampo entered in 1508, on his voyage around the 
island. The harbor extends inland for several miles, 



AROUND THE ISLAND 103 

with an irregular shore line, behind which rises a 
border line of hills. The city itself is some four or 
five miles from the entrance to the harbor. It came 
into existence, and still exists, chiefly by reason of 
the sugar business. It is an important outlet for 
that industry, and many estates are in its near vicin- 
ity. The old city of Trinidad is reached, by boat, 
from Cienfuegos, or rather its port city, Casilda, 
is so reached. Presumably, it was the port city that 
Velasquez founded in 15 14, a location a few miles 
inland being chosen later, as being less exposed to 
attacks by the pirates and freebooters who infested 
the Caribbean Sea for many years. It is said that 
Cortes landed here and recruited his forces on his 
way to Mexico, in 15 18. The city itself stands on 
the lower slopes of the hills that form its highly 
effective background. Its streets are narrow and 
tortuous. Like most of the cities of the island, and 
most of the cities of the world, it has its humble 
homes of the poor, and its mansions of the rich. 
Immediately behind it stands a hill with an elevation 
of about nine hundred feet above sea-level. Its 
name indicates the reason for its application, La 
Figia, the "lookout," or the "watch-tower." From 
its summit, we may assume that the people of earlier 
times scanned the horizon for any sign of approaching 
pirates by whom they might be attacked. It serves 
a more satisfactory purpose nowadays in that it 
affords one of the loveliest panoramic views to be 
found anywhere in Cuba. Not far away, and ac- 



io 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

cessible from the city, is the Pico de Potrerillo, about 
3,000 feet elevation, the highest point in Central 
Cuba. Northeast of Trinidad, and reached by rail 
from Villa Clara, is Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad's rival 
in antiquity, both having been founded, by Velasquez, 
in the same year. Here also are narrow, crooked 
streets in a city of no mean attractions, although it 
lacks the picturesque charm of its rival in age. It 
is an inland city, about twenty-five miles from the 
coast, but even that did not protect it from attack 
by the pirates. It was several times the victim of 
their depredations. 



VII 

AROUND THE ISLAND: Continued 

^ ~^HE next city, eastward, is Camaguey, in 
many ways doubtless the best worth a visit, 
il next to Havana, of any city on the island. 
It is a place of interesting history and, for me per- 
sonally, a place of somewhat mixed recollections. 
The history may wait until I have told my story. I 
think it must have been on my third visit to the 
island, early in 1902. On my arrival in Havana, 
I met my friend Charles M. Pepper, a fellow laborer 
in the newspaper field. He at once informed me that 
he and I were to start the next morning for a three 
or four weeks' journey around the island. It was 
news to me, and the fact that my baggage, excepting 
the suitcase that I carried, had failed to come on 
the boat that brought me, led me to demur. My 
objections were overruled on the ground that we 
could carry little baggage anyway, and all that was 
needed could be bought before starting, or along the 
way. The next morning saw us on the early train 
for Matanzas. We spent a week or ten days in that 
city, in Cardenas, Sagua, Santa Clara, and Cien- 
fuegos, renewing former acquaintance and noting 
the changes effected by the restoration from the war 



106 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

period. That was before the completion of the Cuba 
Railway. To get to Camaguey, then known as 
Puerto Principe, we took the steamer at Cienfuegos 
and journeyed along the coast to Jucaro. There, 
because of shallow water, we were dropped into a 
shore boat some four or five miles from the coast, 
and there our troubles began. Fortunately, it was 
early morning. We got something to eat and some 
coffee, which is almost invariably good in Cuba, but 
when we meet nowadays we have a laugh over that 
breakfast at Jucaro. I don't know, and really don't 
care, what the place is now. After some hours of 
waiting, we secured passage in an antiquated little 
car attached to a freight train carrying supplies and 
structural material to Ciego de Avila, for use by the 
railway then being built in both directions, eastward 
and westward from that point. The line that there 
crosses the island from north to south was built in 
the time of the Ten Years' War (i 868-1 878) as a 
barrier against the revolutionists operating in eastern 
Cuba. It was restored for use in the revolution of 
1895, but its blockhouses at every kilometre, and its 
barbed wire tangles, were entirely ineffective against 
Gomez and Maceo and other leaders, all of whom 
crossed it at their own sweet will, although not with- 
out an occasional vicious little contest. We reached 
Ciego de Avila soon after noon, and had to wait there 
over night for a further advance. The place is now 
a thriving little city, but it was then a somewhat 
sprawling village with a building that was called a 



AROUND THE ISLAND 107 

hotel. But we got food and drink and beds, all that 
is really necessary for experienced campaigners. For 
the next two days, Old Man Trouble made himself 
our personal companion and did not lose sight of 
us for a single minute. 

Through personal acquaintance with the railway 
officials, we obtained permission to travel over the line, 
on any and all trains, as far as it was then built, some 
forty miles or so toward Camaguey. Through them, 
also, we arranged for saddle horses to meet us at rail- 
head for the remainder of the journey. There were no 
trains except construction trains carrying rails, ties, 
lumber, and other materials. We boarded the first 
one out in the morning. We had our choice of riding 
on any of those commodities that we might select. 
There was not even a caboose. We chose a car of 
lumber as the most promising. For four or five hours 
we crawled through that country, roasting and broiling 
on that pile of planks, but the ties and the rails were 
even hotter. The only way we could keep a place cool 
enough to sit on was by sitting on it. I once occupied 
a stateroom next to the steamer's funnel. I have 
seen, day after day, the pitch bubble between the 
planks of a steamer's deck in the Indian Ocean. I have 
been in other places that I thought plenty hot enough, 
but never have I been so thoroughly cooked as were 
my companion and I perched on the lumber pile. On 
top of that, or rather on top of us, there poured a con- 
stant rain of cinders from the locomotive puffing away 
a few cars ahead of us. The road-bed was rough, and 



108 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

at times we had to hang on for our very lives. We can 
laugh about it now, but, at the time, it was no joke. 
At last we reached the end of the line, somewhere in 
a hot Cuban forest, but there were no horses. We 
watched the operation of railway building, and took 
turns in anathematizing, in every language of which 
we had any knowledge, the abandoned ruffian who 
failed to appear with those horses. Before night, we 
were almost ready to wish that he had died on the way. 
At last he came. Our baggage was loaded on a pack- 
horse; we mounted and rode gallantly on our way. We 
had about thirty miles to cover by that or some other 
means of locomotion. Before we had gone a mile, 
we developed a clear understanding of the reasons for 
the sale of those horses by the Government of the 
United States, but why the United States Army ever 
bought them for cavalry mounts we could not even 
imagine. There was no road. Most of the way we 
followed the partly constructed road-bed for the new 
railway, making frequent detours, through field or 
jungle, to get around gaps or places of impossible 
roughness. Before we had covered two miles, we 
began to wish that the man who sent those horses, a 
Spaniard, by the way, might be doomed to ride them 
through all eternity under the saddles with which they 
were equipped. We were sorry enough for the poor 
brutes, but sorrier still for ourselves. For several 
days, I limped in misery from a long row of savage 
blisters raised on my leg by rawhide knots with which 
my saddle had been repaired. An hour after starting, 



AROUND THE ISLAND 109 

we were overtaken by a heavy thunder-shower. At 
nightfall, after having covered about fifteen wretched 
miles, we reached a construction camp where an Ameri- 
can nobleman, disguised as a section-boss, gave us 
food and lodging in the little palm-leaf shack that 
served as his temporary home. It was barely big 
enough for one, but he made it do for three. 

Early in the morning, we resumed our journey, 
plodding along as best we could over a half-graded 
"right-of-way." A couple of hours brought us to a 
larger construction camp where we halted for such 
relief as we could secure. We then were some twelve 
or fourteen miles from our destination. We discussed 
the wisdom of making the rest of the way on foot, as 
preferable to that particular kind of saddle-work, 
leaving our baggage to come along with the horses 
when it might. But fortune smiled, or it may have 
been just a grimace. Word came that a team, two 
horses and a wagon, would go to the city that afternoon, 
and there would be room for us. We told our pilot, 
the man with the horses, just what we thought of him 
and all his miserable ancestors, gave him a couple of 
pesos, and rejoiced over our prospects of better fortune. 
But it proved to be only an escape from the fire into 
the frying-pan. I have driven over many miles of 
South African veldt, straight "across lots," in all com- 
fort, but while the general topography of Camaguey 
puts it somewhat into the veldt class, its immediate 
surface did not in the least remind me of the South 
African plateau. The trip was little short of wonderful 



no CUBA OLD AND NEW 

for its bumpiness. We got to Camaguey sore and 
bruised but, as far as we could discover, physically 
intact, and, having arrived, may now return to its 
history and description. May no "gentle reader" 
who scans these pages repeat our experience in getting 
there. It is supposed that here, or immediately here- 
about, was the place of "fifty houses and a thousand 
people" encountered by the messengers of Columbus, 
when he sent them inland to deliver official letters of 
introduction to the gorgeous ruler of the country in 
which he thought he was. Different writers tell dif- 
ferent stories about the settlement of the place, but 
there is no doubt that it was among the earliest to be 
settled. Columbus gave to a harbor in that vicinity, 
in all probability the Bay of Nuevitas, the name Puerto 
del Principe, or Port of the Prince. He called the 
islands of the neighborhood the Gardens of the King. 
On that bay, about 15 14, Diego Velasquez founded a 
city, probably the present Nuevitas, which he is said 
to have called Santa Maria. Somewhere from two 
to ten years later, an inland settlement was made. 
This developed into the city that was afterward given 
the name of Santa Maria del Puerto del Principe, now 
very properly changed to the old Indian name of 
Camaguey. 

If the idea of an inland location was, as it is said to 
have been, protection against pirates and buccaneers, 
it was not altogether a success. The distinguished 
pirate, Mr. Henry Morgan, raided the place very ef- 
fectively in 1668, securing much loot. In his book, 



AROUND THE ISLAND m 

published in 1871, Mr. Hazard says: "Puerto Principe 
(the present Camaguey) is, probably, the oldest, 
quaintest town on the island, — in fact, it may be said 
to be a finished town, as the world has gone on so fast 
that the place seems a million years old, and from its 
style of dress, a visitor might think he was put back 
almost to the days of Columbus. " There have been 
changes since that time, but the old charm is still there, 
the narrow and crooked streets, forming almost a 
labyrinth, the old buildings, and much else that I 
earnestly hope may never be changed. There is now 
an up-to-date hotel, connected with the railway com- 
pany, but if I were to go there again and the old hotel 
was habitable, I know I should go where I first stayed, 
and where we occupied a huge barrack-like room 
charged on our bill as " habitaciones prefer elites" the 
state chamber. It had a dirty tiled floor, and was the 
home of many fleas, but there was something about it 
that I liked. I do not mean to say that all of Cama- 
guey, "the city of the plain," is lovely, or picturesque 
or even interesting. No more is all of Paris, or Buda- 
pest, or Amsterdam, or Washington. They are only 
so in some of their component parts, but it is those 
parts that remain in the memory. The country around 
the city is a vast plain, for many years, and still, a 
grazing country, a land of horses and cattle. The 
charm is in the city itself. If I could see only one 
place outside of Havana, I would see Camaguey. A 
little less than fifty miles to the north is Nuevitas, 
reached by one of the first railways built in Cuba, now 



ii2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

if ever little more than the port city for its larger 
neighbor. Columbus became somewhat ecstatic over 
the region. Perhaps it was then more charming, 
or the season more favorable, than when I saw 
it. I do not recall any feeling of special enthusiasm 
about its scenic charms. Perhaps I should have 
discovered them had I stayed longer. Perhaps I 
should have been more impressed had it not been for 
the impressions of Camaguey. I saw Nuevitas only 
briefly on my way eastward on that memorable excur- 
sion by construction train and saddle. The only route 
then available was by boat along the north shore, 
and it was there that we caught the steamer for 
Santiago. 

That sail along the coast would have afforded 
greater pleasure had it lacked the noisy presence of 
an itinerant opera company whose members per- 
sisted, day and night, in exercising their lungs to the 
accompaniment of an alleged piano in the cabin. I 
have a far more pleasant recollection, or rather a 
memory because it stays with me, of music in those 
waters. The transport on which I went to Porto 
Rico, in the summer of 1898, carried, among other 
troops, a battery of light artillery. It had an un- 
usually good bugler, and his sounding of "taps" 
on those soft, starlit nights remains with me as one 
of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard. The 
shrieks, squalls, and roars of those opera people were 
in a wholly different class. About seventy-five miles 
east of Nuevitas is Gibara, merely a shipping port 



AROUND THE ISLAND 113 

for the inland city of Holguin. The former is only 
one of a number of such places found along the coast. 
Most of them are attractive in point of surrounding 
scenery, but little or not at all attractive in them- 
selves, being mere groups of uninteresting structures 
of the conventional type. Holguin is perhaps two 
hundred years old, quite pleasantly situated, but 
affording no special points of interest for the tourist. 
The city is now easily reached by a branch of the 
Cuba Railway. It is worth the visit of those who 
"want to see it all." Beyond Gibara is Nipe Bay, not 
improbably the first Cuban harbor entered by Colum- 
bus. Nipe Bay and its near neighbor, Banes Bay, 
are the centres of what is now the greatest industrial 
activity of any part of the island. Here, recent 
American investment is measured in scores of millions 
of dollars. Here, in the immediate neighborhood, 
are some of the largest sugar plantations and mills 
on the island, the Boston and the Preston. A little 
to the west of Gibara are two others, Chaparra and 
Delicias. Hitherto, the western half of the island 
has been the great producing district, but present 
indications point to a not distant time when the 
eastern district will rival and, it may be, outstrip 
the section of older development. The foundation 
is already laid for an extensive enterprise. Nature 
has afforded one of the finest land-locked harbors in 
the world at Nipe, and another, though smaller, a 
few miles away, at Banes. The region now has 
railroad connection with practically all parts of the 



ii 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

island. Around those bays are sugar lands, tobacco 
lands, fruit lands, and a few miles inland are the 
vast iron ore beds that, as they are developed, will 
afford employment for an army of workmen. Nipe 
Bay is the natural commercial outlet for a vast area of 
richly productive soil. At present, the region affords 
nothing of special interest except its industrial activities, 
its miles and miles of sugar cane, its huge mills, and 
the villages built to house its thousands of workmen. 
Seventy-five miles or so eastward of Nipe, lies one 
of the most charming and interesting spots on the 
island. This is old Baracoa, the oldest settlement 
on the island, now to be reached only by water or 
by the roughest of journeys over mountain trails. 
The town itself does not amount to much, but the 
bay is a gem, a little, circular basin, forest-shaded 
to its border, its waters clear as crystal. Behind 
it rise the forest-clad hills, step on step, culminating 
in el Tunque, "the anvil," with an elevation of about 
eighteen hundred feet. Baracoa is supposed to be the 
place about which Columbus wrote one of his most 
glowing and extravagant eulogies. Whether it is 
really worth the time and the discomfort of a special 
trip to see it, is perhaps somewhat doubtful. It is 
a place of scenery and sentiment, and little else. 
There is an old fort on a hilltop, not particularly 
picturesque, and an old church in which is a cross 
quite doubtfully reported as having been furnished 
by Columbus. Sometime, years hence, there will be 
easier communication, and the fertile hillsides and 



AROUND THE ISLAND 115 

still more fertile valleys will supply various produces 
for consumption in the United States. About twenty- 
five miles east of Baracoa is the end of the island, 
Cape Maisi. Swinging around that, the coasting 
steamers turn due west along the shore to Santiago, 
passing the harbor of Guantanamo, with its United 
States naval station. That place is reached by rail 
from Santiago, a highly picturesque route through 
the Guantanamo valley. Besides the naval station, 
the place is a shipping port, affording nothing of 
special interest to the traveller who has seen other 
and more easily accessible cities of its type. It 
always seems to me that Santiago, or more properly 
Santiago de Cuba, would be more engaging if we 
could forget the more recent history of this city, 
known to most Cubans as Cuba (pronounced Cooba). 
No doubt, it is a much better place in which to live 
than it was twenty years ago, and much of its old 
charm remains. Its setting cannot be changed. It 
is itself a hillside town, surrounded by hills, with 
real mountains on its horizon. The old cathedral, 
a dominant structure, has been quite a little patched 
up in recent years, and shows the patches. The 
houses, big and little, are still painted in nearly all 
the shades of the spectrum. But there is a seeming 
change, doubtless psychological rather than physical. 
One sees, in imagination, Cervera's squadron "bottled 
up" in the beautiful harbor, while Sampson's ships 
lie outside waiting for it to come out. It is difficult 
to forget San Juan Hill and El Caney, a few miles 



n6 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

behind the city, and remember only its older stories. 
A good deal of history has been made here in the 
last four hundred years. Its pages show such names 
as Velasquez, Grijalva, Hernan Cortes, and Narvaez, 
and centuries later, Cespedes, Marti, and Palma. 
Here was enacted the grim tragedy of the Virginius, 
and here was the conflict that terminated Spain's once 
vast dominion in the western world. My own impres- 
sion is that most of its history has already been writ- 
ten, that it will have no important future. As a port 
of shipment, I think it must yield to the new port, 
Nipe Bay, on the north coast. It is merely a bit 
of commercial logic, the question of a sixty-mile rail- 
haul as compared with a voyage around the end of 
the island. Santiago will not be wiped from the map, 
but I doubt its long continuance as the leading com- 
mercial centre of eastern Cuba. It is also a fairly safe 
prediction that the same laws of commercial logic will 
some day operate to drain northward the products of 
the fertile valley of the Cauto, and the region behind 
old Manzanillo and around the still older Bayamo. 

Except the places earlier mentioned, Jucaro, Trini- 
dad and Cienfuegos, there are no southern ports to 
the west until Batabano is reached, immediately 
south of, and only a few miles from, the city of 
Havana. It is a shallow harbor, of no commercial 
importance. It serves mainly as the centre of a 
sponge-fishing industry, and as a point of departure 
for the Isle of Pines, and for ports on the south coast. 
The Isle of Pines is of interest for a number of rea- 



AROUND THE ISLAND 117 

sons, among which are its history, its mineral springs, 
its delightful climate, and an American colony that 
has made much trouble in Washington. Columbus 
landed there in 1494, and gave it the name La 
Evangelista. It lies about sixty miles off the coast, 
almost due south from Havana. Between the island 
and the mainland lies a labyrinth of islets and keys, 
many of them verdure-clad. Its area is officially 
given as 1,180 square miles. There seems no doubt 
that, at some earlier time, it formed a part of the 
main island, with which it compares in geologic 
structure and configuration. It is now, in efFecl:, two 
islands connected by a marsh; the northern part 
being broken and hilly, and the southern part low, 
flat, and sandy, probably a comparatively recently 
reclaimed coralline plain. The island has been, at 
various times, the headquarters of bands of pirates, 
a military hospital, a penal institution, and a source 
of political trouble. It is now a Cuban island the 
larger part of which is owned by Americans. It is 
a part of the province of Havana, and will probably 
so remain as long as Cuba is Cuba. My personal 
investigations of the disputed question of the political 
ownership of the island began early in 1899. I then 
reached a conclusion from which I have not since 
seen any reason to depart. The island was then, 
had always been, and is now, as much a part of Cuba 
as Long Island and Key West have been and are 
parts of the United States. 

Just who it was that first raised the question of 



n8 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

ownership, none of us who investigated the matter 
at the time of its particular acuteness, was able to 
determine satisfactorily, although some of us had a 
well-defined suspicion. The man is now dead, and 
I shall not give his name. Article I, of the Treaty 
of Paris, of December 10, 1898, presumably disposes 
of the Cuban area; Article II refers to Porto Rico; 
and Article III refers to the Philippines. The issue 
regarding the Isle of Pines was raised under Article 
II, presumably referring only to Porto Rico. A 
slight but possibly important difference appears in 
the Spanish and the English versions. The English 
text reads that "Spain cedes . . . the island of 
Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish 
sovereignty" etc. The Spanish text, literally trans- 
lated runs: "Spain cedes . . . the island of Porto 
Rico and the others that are now under its sover- 
eignty." The obvious reference of the article is to 
Mona, Viequez, and Culebra, all small islands in 
Porto Rican waters. But the question was raised 
and was vigorously discussed. An official map was 
issued showing the island as American territory. 
Americans jumped in, bought up large tracts, and 
started a lively real estate boom. They advertised 
it widely as American territory, and many put their 
little collections of dollars into it. The claim of 
Spanish cession was afterward denied in the very 
document that served to keep the issue alive for a 
number of years. Article VI of the Piatt Amend- 
ment, which the Cubans accepted with marked 



AROUND THE ISLAND n 9 

reluctance, declared that the island was omitted from 
the boundaries of Cuba, and that the title and owner- 
ship should be left to future adjustment by treaty. 
But no alternative appears between cession and no 
cession. Had the island become definitely American 
territory by cession, its alienation, by such a step, 
would not have been possible. When we left Cuba, 
in 1902, the official instructions from Washington 
were that the Isle of Pines would remain under a 
de faclo American government. President Palma, 
accepting the transfer, expressed his understanding 
that it would "continue de faclo under the jurisdiction 
of the Republic of Cuba." In some way, the depart- 
ing American authority failed to leave any agent or 
representative of the de faclo government of the 
United States, and the Cubans included the island 
in their new administration, very properly. When 
the treaty proposed by the Piatt Amendment came 
before the United States Senate, it hung fire, and 
finally found lodgment in one of the many pigeon- 
holes generously provided for the use of that august 
body. There it may probably be found today, a 
record and nothing more. Why? For the very 
simple reason that some of the resident claimants 
for American ownership sent up a consignment of 
cigars made on the island from tobacco grown on 
the island, and refused to pay duty on them. The 
ground of refusal was that they were a domestic 
product, sent from one port in the United States to 
another port in the same country, and therefore not 



120 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

dutiable. The case of Pearcy vs Stranahan, the 
former representing the shippers, and the latter being 
the Collector of the Port of New York, came before 
the Supreme Court of the United States, and that 
final authority decided and declared that the Isle of 
Pines was Cuban territory and a part of Cuba. The 
question is settled, and the Isle of Pines can become 
territory of the United States only by purchase, con- 
quest, or some other form of territorial transfer. 

While the American settlers in the Isle of Pines, 
and the several real-estate companies who seek pur- 
chasers for their holdings, own a large part of the 
territory, they still constitute a minority of the 
population. Many of the settlers, probably most of 
them, are industrious and persistent in their various 
productive activities. Their specialty is citrus fruits, 
but their products are not limited to that line. 
More than a few have tried their little experiment in 
pioneering, and have returned to their home land 
more or less disgusted with their experience. Those 
who have remained, and have worked faithfully and 
intelligently, have probably done a little better than 
they would have done at home. The great wealth 
for which all, doubtless, earnestly hoped, and in 
which many, doubtless, really believed, has not come. 
This settlement is only one of many speculative 
exploitations in Cuba. Some of these have been 
fairly honest, but many of them have been little 
better than rank swindles. Many have been entirely 
abandoned, the buyers losing the hard-earned dollars 



AROUND THE ISLAND 121 

they had invested. Others, better located, have 
been developed, by patience, persistence, and thrift, 
into fairly prosperous colonies. I do not know how 
many victims have been caught by unscrupulous and 
ignorant promoters in the last fifteen years, prin- 
cipally in the United States and in Canada, but they 
are certainly many, so many that the speculative 
industry has declined in recent years. Many of the 
settlers who have remained have learned the game, 
have discovered that prosperity in Cuba is purchased 
by hard work just as it is elsewhere. In different 
parts of the island, east, west, and centre, there are 
now thrifty and contented colonists who have fought 
their battle, and have learned the rules that nature 
has formulated as the condition of success in such 
countries. Whether these people have really done any 
better than they would have done had they stayed at 
home and followed the rules there laid down, is perhaps 
another question. At all events, there are hundreds of 
very comfortable and happy American homes in Cuba, 
even in the Isle of Pines, where they persist in growling 
because it is Cuba and not the United States. 

In a review of a country including forty-four 
thousand square miles of territory, condensed into 
two chapters, it is quite impossible to include all 
that is worth telling. Moreover, there is much in 
the island of which no adequate description can be 
given. There is much that must be seen if it is to 
be fairly understood and appreciated. 



VIII 

THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 

TTN his message to Congress, on December 5, 1898, 
President McKinley declared that "the new Cuba 
-■I yet to arise from the ashes of the past must needs 
be bound to us by ties of singular intimacy and 
strength if its enduring welfare is to be assured. ,, 

Probably to many of the people of the United 
States, the story of our relations with Cuba had its 
beginning with the Spanish-American war. That 
is quite like a notion that the history of an apple 
begins with its separation from the tree on which 
it grew. The general history of the island is reviewed 
in other chapters in this volume. The story of our 
active relations with Cuba and its affairs runs back 
for more than a hundred years, at least to the days 
of President Thomas Jefferson who, in 1808, wrote 
thus to Albert Gallatin: "I shall sincerely lament 
Cuba's falling into any other hands but those of its 
present owners." Several other references to the 
island appear at about that time. Two great move- 
ments were then going on. Europe was in the 
throes of the Napoleonic disturbance, and for more 
than twenty-five years both France and England 
schemed, sometimes openly and sometimes secretly, 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 123 

for the possession of Cuba. The other movement was 
the revolution in Spain's colonies in the Western 
Hemisphere, a movement that cost Spain all of 
its possessions in that area, with the exception of 
Cuba and Porto Rico. The influence of the revolu- 
tionary activities naturally extended to Cuba, but 
it was not until after 1820 that matters became 
dangerously critical. From that time until the pres- 
ent, the question of Cuba's political fate, and the 
question of our relations with the island, form an 
interesting and highly important chapter in the his- 
tory of the United States as well as in the history 
of Cuba. 

In his book on the war with Spain, Henry Cabot 
Lodge makes a statement that may seem curious 
to some and amazing to others. It is, however, the 
opinion of a competent and thoroughly trained 
student of history. He writes thus: 

"The expulsion of Spain from the Antilles is merely 
the last and final step of the inexorable movement 
in which the United States has been engaged for 
nearly a century. By influence and by example, or 
more directly, by arms and by the pressure of ever- 
advancing settlements, the United States drove Spain 
from all her continental possessions in the Western 
Hemisphere, until nothing was left to the successors 
of Charles and Philip but Cuba and Porto Rico. 
How did it happen that this great movement stopped 
when it came to the ocean's edge? The movement 
against Spain was at once national and organic, 



i2 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

while the pause on the sea-coast was artificial and in 
contravention of the laws of political evolution in 
the Americas. The conditions in Cuba and Porto 
Rico did not differ from those which had gone down 
in ruin wherever the flag of Spain waved on the 
mainland. The Cubans desired freedom, and Bolivar 
would fain have gone to their aid. Mexico and 
Colombia, in 1825, planned to invade the island, and 
at that time invasion was sure to be successful. 
What power stayed the oncoming tide which had 
swept over a continent? Not Cuban loyalty, for 
the expression * Faithful Cuba' was a lie from the 
beginning. The power which prevented the libera- 
tion of Cuba was the United States, and more than 
seventy years later this republic has had to fight a 
war because at the appointed time she set herself 
against her own teachings, and brought to a halt 
the movement she had herself started to free the 
New World from the oppression of the Old. The 
United States held back Mexico and Colombia and 
Bolivar, used her influence at home and abroad to 
that end, and, in the opinion of contemporary man- 
kind, succeeded, according to her desires, in keeping 
Cuba under the dominion of Spain. " 

For a number of years, Cuba's destiny was a sub- 
ject of the gravest concern in Washington. Four 
solutions presented themselves; first, the acquisition 
of Cuba by the United States; second, its retention 
by Spain; third, its transfer to some power other 
than Spain; fourth, its political independence. That 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 125 

the issue was decided by the United States is shown 
by all the history of the time. While other factors 
had their influence in the determination, it is entirely 
clear that the issue turned on the question of slavery. 
In his book on Cuba and International Relations, Mr. 
Callahan summarizes his review of the official pro- 
ceedings by saying that "the South did not want 
to see Cuba independent without slavery, while the 
North did not want to annex it with slavery." In 
his work on the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in 
America, Mr. Henry Wilson declares that "thus 
clearly and unequivocally did this Republic step 
forth the champion of slavery, and boldly insist that 
these islands should remain under the hateful des- 
potism of Spain, rather than gain their independence 
by means that should inure to the detriment of its 
cherished system. Indeed, it (the United States) 
would fight to fasten more securely the double bondage 
on Cuba and the slave." 

From this point of view, unquestionably correcl:, 
it is altogether evident that the United States as- 
sumed responsibility for Cuba's welfare, not by the 
intervention of 1898, but by its acts more than seventy 
years earlier. The diplomatic records of those years 
are filled with communications regarding the island, 
and it was again and again the subject of legislation 
or proposed legislation. President after President 
dealt with it in messages to Congress. The acquisi- 
tion of the island, by purchase or otherwise, was 
again and again discussed. Popular interest was 



126 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

again and again excited; the Spanish colonial policy- 
was denounced; and the burdens and sufferings of 
the Cubans were depicted in many harrowing tales. 
For the policy that led to the imposition of a re- 
straining hand on proposals to free Cuba, in those 
early days, the people of the United States today 
must blush. The independence movement in the 
States of Spanish-America may be said to have 
had its definite beginning in 1806, when Francisco 
Miranda, a Venezuelan, sailed from New York with 
three ships manned by American filibusters, although 
the first land battle was fought in Bolivia, in 1809, 
and the last was fought in the same country, in 
1825. But the great wave swept from the northern 
border of Mexico to the southernmost point of Span- 
ish possession. When these States declared their 
independence, they wrote into their Constitutions 
that all men should be free, that human slavery 
should be abolished forever from their soil. The 
attitude of the United States in the matter of Cuba 
was determined by the objection to the existence of 
an anti-slavery State so near our border. The expe- 
rience of Haiti and Santo Domingo was, of course, 
clearly in mind, but the objection went deeper than 
that. Those who are interested may read with profit 
the debates in the Congress of the United States, 
in 1826, on the subject of the despatch of delegates 
to the so-called Panama Congress of that year. On 
the whole, it is not pleasant reading from any present 
point of view. 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 127 

Our cherished Monroe Doctrine was one of the 
fruits of this period, and in the enunciation of that 
policy the affairs of Cuba were a prominent if not 
the dominant force. The language of this doctrine 
is said to have been written by Secretary Adams, 
but it is embodied in the message of President Mon- 
roe, in December, 1823, and so bears his name. In 
April, of that year, Secretary Adams sent a long 
communication to Mr. Nelson, then the American 
Minister to Spain. For their bearing on the Cuban 
question, and for the presentation of a view that 
runs through many years of American policy, extracts 
from that letter may be included here. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 28, 1823. 

"In the war between France and Spain, now 
commencing, other interests, peculiarly ours, will, 
in all probability, be deeply involved. Whatever 
may be the issue of this war, as between these two 
European powers, it may be taken for granted that 
the dominion of Spain upon the American continent, 
north and south, is irrecoverably gone. But the 
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still remain nominally, 
and so far really, dependent upon her, that she pos- 
sesses the power of transferring her own dominion 
over them, together with the possession of them, to 
others. These islands, from their local position are 
natural appendages to the North American continent, 
and one of them, Cuba, almost in sight of our shores, 
from a multitude of considerations, has become an 



128 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

object of transcendant importance to the commercial 
and political interests of our Union. Its commanding 
position, with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and 
the West India seas; the character of its population; 
its situation midway between our southern coast and 
the island of St. Domingo; its safe and capacious 
harbor of the Havana, fronting a long line of our 
shores destitute of the same advantage; the nature 
of its productions and of its wants, furnishing the 
supplies and needing the returns of a commerce 
immensely profitable and mutually beneficial, — give 
it an importance in the sum of our national interests 
with which that of no other foreign territory can be 
compared, and little inferior to that which binds the 
different members of this Union together. Such, 
indeed, are the interests of that island and of this 
country, the geographical, commercial, moral, and 
political relations, that, in looking forward to the 
probable course of events, for the short period of 
half a century, it is scarcely possible to resist the 
conviction that the annexation of Cuba to our federal 
republic will be indispensable to the continuance 
and integrity of the Union itself." 

The communication proceeds to relate the knowledge 
of the Department that both Great Britain and 
France were desirous of securing possession and con- 
trol of the island, and to disclaim, on the part of the 
United States, all disposition to obtain possession 
of either Cuba or Porto Rico. The complications 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 129 

of the situation became increasingly serious, more 
particularly with regard to Cuba, and on December 
2, of that year (1823), President Monroe issued his 
message carrying the "doctrine," which may be 
given thus : 

"In the wars of the European powers in matters 
relating to themselves we have never taken any 
part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. 
It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously 
menaced that we resent injuries or make preparations 
for our defense. With the movements in this hemi- 
sphere we are of necessity more immediately con- 
nected. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the 
amicable relations existing between the United States 
and those powers (of Europe) to declare that we should 
consider any attempt on their part to extend their 
system to any portion of this hemisphere as danger- 
ous to our peace and safety. With the existing 
colonies or dependencies of any European power 
we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But 
with the Governments that have declared their 
independence and maintained it, and whose inde- 
pendence we have recognized, we could not view any 
interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or 
controlling in any other manner their destiny, by 
any European power in any other light than as the 
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
the United States." 

From this time onward, Cuba appears as an almost 
continuous object of special interest to both the people 



i 3 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

and the officials of the United States. Notwith- 
standing this disclaimer of President Monroe's mes- 
sage, the idea of the acquisition of the island, by the 
United States, soon arose. It persisted through all 
the years down to the time of the Teller amendment, 
in 1898, and there are many who even now regard 
annexation as inevitable at some future time, more 
or less distant. The plan appears as a suggestion 
in a communication, under date of November 30, 
1825, from Alexander H. Everett, then Minister to 
Madrid, to President Adams. It crops up repeatedly 
in various quarters in later years. It would be a 
difficult and tedious undertaking to chase through 
all the diplomatic records of seventy years the 
references to Cuba and its affairs. 

From that period until the present time, the af- 
fairs of the island have been a matter of constant 
interest and frequent anxiety in Washington. Fear 
of British acquisition of the island appears to have 
subsided about i860, but there were in the island two 
groups, both relatively small, one of them working 
for independence, and the other for annexation to the 
United States. The great majority, however, desired 
some fair measure of self-government, and relief 
from economic and financial burdens, under the Span- 
ish flag. The purchase of the island by the United 
States was proposed by President Polk, in 1848; 
by President Pierce, in 1854; and by President 
Buchanan, in his time. Crises appeared from time 
to time. Among them was the incident of the Black 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 131 

Warrior, in 1854. Mr. Rhodes thus describes the 
affair, in his History of the United States: 

"The Black Warrior was an American merchant 
steamer, plying between Mobile and New York, stop- 
ping at Havana for passengers and mail. She had 
made thirty-six such voyages, almost always having 
a cargo for the American port, and never being per- 
mitted to bring freight into Havana. The custom 
of her agent was to clear her 'in ballast' the day 
before her arrival. The practice, while contrary to 
the regulations of Cuban ports, had always been 
winked at by the authorities. It was well under- 
stood that the Black Warrior generally had a cargo 
aboard, but a detailed manifest of her load had never 
been required. She had always been permitted to 
sail unmolested until, when bound from Mobile to 
New York, she was stopped on the 28th of February, 
1854, by order of the royal exchequer, for having 
violated the regulations of the port. The agent, 
finding that the cause of this proceeding was the 
failure to manifest the cargo 'in transit,' offered to 
amend the manifest, which under the rules he had 
a right to do; but this the collector, on a flimsy 
pretext, refused to permit. The agent was at the 
same time informed that the cargo was confiscated 
and the captain fined, in pursuance of the custom- 
house regulations. The cargo was cotton, valued at 
one hundred thousand dollars; and the captain was 
fined six thousand dollars. The United States consul 
applied to the captain-general for redress, but no 



i 3 2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

satisfaction was obtained. A gang of men with 
lighters were sent to the ship under the charge of the 
commandante, who ordered the captain of the Black 
Warrior to discharge her cargo. This he refused 
to do. The commandante then had the hatches 
opened, and his men began to take out the bales of 
cotton. The captain hauled down his flag and 
abandoned the vessel to the Spanish authorities." 

The news of the incident created great excitement 
in Washington. President Pierce sent a message 
to Congress, stating that demand had been made 
on Spain for indemnity, and suggesting provisional 
legislation that would enable him, if negotiations 
failed, "to insure the observance of our just rights, 
to obtain redress for injuries received, and to vindi- 
cate the honor of our flag." 

Mr. Soule, then the American Minister to Madrid, 
was the official through whom the negotiations were 
conducted. He was a man of somewhat impetuous 
temperament, and an ardent advocate of Cuba's 
annexation. He quite overstepped both the bounds 
of propriety and of his authority in his submission, 
under instructions, of a demand for three hundred 
thousand dollars indemnity. This, and Spanish dip- 
lomatic methods, led to delay, and the excitement 
died out. In the meantime, Spain released the vessel 
and its cargo, disavowed and disapproved the con- 
duct of the local officials, paid the indemnity claimed 
by the owners of the vessel, and the ship resumed 
its regular trips, being treated with every courtesy 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 133 

when visiting Havana. But the incident gave rise 
to active discussion, and for a time threatened serious 
results. It followed on the heels of another experi- 
ence, the Lopez expeditions, to which reference is 
made in another chapter, and came at a time when 
Cuba and Cuban affairs were topics of a lively public 
interest. The subject of acquisition was under general 
public discussion and occupied a large share of public 
attention. Some wanted war with Spain, and others 
proposed the purchase of the island from Spain. 
But the immediate cause of complaint having been 
removed by the release of the ship, Soule was in- 
structed to take no further steps in the matter, and 
the excitement gradually passed away. 

Immediately following this experience, and growing 
out of it, came the incident of the "Ostend Manifesto." 
At that time, James Buchanan was Minister to Eng- 
land. John Y. Mason was Minister to France, and 
Pierre Soule was Minister to Spain. Secretary of 
State Marcy suggested a conference between these 
three officials. They met at Ostend, but afterward 
transferred their deliberations to Aix la Chapelle. 
The meeting attracted general attention in Europe. 
The result of what they reported as "a full and 
unreserved interchange of views and sentiments," 
was a recommendation that an earnest effort be made 
immediately to purchase Cuba. They were of opinion 
that the sum of one hundred and twenty million 
dollars be offered. The report proceeded thus: 
"After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba 



i 34 CUBA 0LD AND NEW 

far beyond its present value, and this shall have 
been refused, it will then be time to consider the 
question, does Cuba in the possession of Spain seri- 
ously endanger our internal peace and the existence 
of our cherished Union? Should this question be 
answered in the affirmative, then, by every law, 
human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting 
it from Spain if we possess the power; and this upon 
the very same principle that would justify an indi- 
vidual in tearing down the burning house of his neigh- 
bor if there were no other means of preventing the 
flame from destroying his own home. ,, It is evident 
that Soule dominated the meeting, and only less 
evident that he, in some way, cajoled his associates 
into signing the report. No action was taken on 
the matter by the Administration, and the incident 
has passed into history somewhat, perhaps, as one 
of the curiosities of diplomacy. At all events, all 
historians note it, and some give it considerable 
attention. 

The next serious complication arose out of the 
Ten Years' War, in Cuba, in 1868, to which reference 
is made in a chapter on Cuba's revolutions. Spain's 
leaders seemed quite incapable of grasping the Cu- 
ban situation, of seeing it in its proper light. It is 
more than probable that, even then, the Cubans 
would have remained loyal if the Spanish authorities 
had paid attention to their just and reasonable de- 
mands. As stated by Mr. Pepper, in his Tomorrow 
in Cuba, "The machete and the torch then gained 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 135 

what peaceful agitation had not been able to achieve." 
The demands of the Cubans are thus stated by 
Seiior Cabrera, in his Cuba and the Cubans: "A 
constitutional system in place of the autocracy of the 
Captain-General, freedom of the press, the right of 
petition, cessation of the exclusion of Cubans from 
public office, unrestricted industrial liberty, abolition 
of restrictions on the transfer of landed property, 
the right of assembly and of association, representa- 
tion in the Cortes, and local self-government," all 
reasonable and just demands from every point of 
view of modern civilization. Spain refused all, and 
on October 10, 1868, an actual revolution began, the 
first in the history of the island to be properly classed 
as a revolution. The United States soon became 
concerned and involved. In his message to Con- 
gress on December 6, 1869, President Grant said: 
"For more than a year, a valuable province of 
Spain, and a near neighbor of ours, in whom all our 
people cannot but feel a deep interest, has been 
struggling for independence and freedom. The people 
and the Government of the United States entertain 
the same warm feelings and sympathies for the 
people of Cuba in their pending struggle that they 
have manifested throughout the previous struggles 
between Spain and her former colonies (Mexico, 
Central America and South America) in behalf of 
the latter. But the contest has at no time assumed 
the conditions which amount to a war in the sense 
of international law, or which would show the ex- 



136 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

istence of a de fado political organization of the 
insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of bellig- 
erency." On June 13, 1870, President Grant sent 
a special message to Congress, in which he reviewed 
the Cuban situation. Another reference appears in 
his message of December 5, 1870. In his message 
of December 4, 1871, he stated that "it is to be 
regretted that the disturbed condition of the island 
of Cuba continues to be a source of annoyance and 
anxiety. The existence of a protracted struggle in 
such close proximity to our own territory, without 
apparent prospect of an early termination, cannot 
be other than an object of concern to a people who, 
while abstaining from interference in the affairs of 
other powers, naturally desire to see every other 
country in the undisturbed enjoyment of peace, 
liberty, and the blessings of free institutions." In 
the message of December 2, 1872, he said: "It is 
with regret that I have again to announce a con- 
tinuance of the disturbed condition in the island of 
Cuba. The contest has now lasted for more than 
four years. Were its scene at a distance from our 
neighborhood, we might be indifferent to its result, 
although humanity could not be unmoved by many 
of its incidents wherever they might occur. It is, 
however, at out door." Reference was made to it 
in all following annual messages, until President 
Hayes, in 1878, announced its termination, ten years 
after its beginning. The contest had become prac- 
tically a deadlock, and a compromise was arranged 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 137 

by General Maximo Gomez, for the Cubans, and 
General Martinez Campos, for Spain. 

The entanglements that grew out of the experiences 
of this period are too long and too complicated for 
detailed review here. This country had no desire 
for war with Spain, but approval of the Spanish 
policy in Cuba was impossible. The sympathies of 
the American people were with the Cubans, as they 
had been for fifty years, and as they continued to be 
until the end of Spanish occupation in the West 
Indies. Rumors of all kinds were afloat, and again 
and again the situation seemed to have reached a 
crisis that could be ended only by war. A particu- 
larly aggravating incident appeared in what is known 
as the Virginius case. This was described as fol- 
lows, in President Grant's message to Congress on 
December 1, 1873. 

"The steamer Virginius was on the 26th day of 
September, 1870, duly registered at the port of New 
York as a part of the commercial marine of the 
United States. On the 4th of October, 1870, having 
received the certificate of her register in the usual 
legal form, she sailed from the port of New York, 
and has not since been within the territorial juris- 
diction of the United States. On the 31st day of 
October last (1873), while sailing under the flag of 
the United States on the high seas, she was forcibly 
seized by the Spanish gunboat Tornado, and was 
carried into the port of Santiago de Cuba, where 
fifty-three of her passengers and crew were inhumanly, 



i 3 S CUBA OLD AND NEW 

and, so far at least as related to those who were 
citizens of the United States, without due process 
of law, put to death. " 

Only for the timely arrival of the British man-of- 
war Niobe, and the prompt and decisive action of 
her commander, there is no doubt that ninety-three 
others would have shared the fate of their com- 
panions. Some were Americans and some were 
British. The excitement in this country was intense, 
and war with Spain was widely demanded. Further 
investigation revealed the fact that the American 
registry was dishonest, that the ship really belonged 
to or was chartered by Cubans, that it was engaged 
in carrying supplies and munitions of war to the 
insurgents, and that its right to fly the American 
flag was more than doubtful. The ship was seized 
by the American authorities under a charge of viola- 
tion of the maritime laws of the United States, and 
was ordered to New York, for a trial of the case. 
American naval officers were placed in command, but 
she was in bad condition, and foundered in a gale 
near Cape Fear. As far as the vessel was concerned, 
the incident was closed. There remained the ques- 
tion of indemnity for what Caleb Cushing, then the 
American Minister to Spain, in his communication 
to the Spanish authorities, denounced as "a dread- 
ful, a savage act, the inhuman slaughter in cold 
blood, of fifty-three human beings, a large num- 
ber of them citizens of the United States, shot with- 
out lawful trial, without any valid pretension of 



THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA 139 

authority, and to the horror of the whole civilized 
world." England also filed its claim for the loss of 
British subjects, and payment was soon after made 
"for the purpose of relief of the families or persons 
of the ship's company and passengers. " In his 
Cuba and International Relations, Mr. Callahan says: 
"The catalogue of irritating affairs in relation to 
Cuba, of which the Virginius was only the culmi- 
nation, might have been urged as sufficient to justify 
a policy of intervention to stop the stubborn war of 
extermination which had been tolerated by peaceful 
neighbors for five years. Some would have been 
ready to advocate intervention as a duty. The 
relations of Cuba to the United States, the Spanish 
commercial restrictions which placed Cuba at the 
mercy of Spanish monopolists, and the character 
of the Spanish rule, pointed to the conclusion that 
if Spain should not voluntarily grant reforms and 
guarantee pacification of the island, the United States 
might be compelled, especially for future security, 
temporarily to occupy it and assist in the organiza- 
tion of a liberal government based upon modern 
views. Such action might have led to annexation, 
but not necessarily; it might have led to a restoration 
of Spanish possession under restrictions as to the 
character of Spanish rule, and as to the size of the 
Spanish army and naval force in the vicinity; more 
likely it would have resulted in the independence of 
Cuba under American protection." 

These are only some of the more prominent fea- 



i 4 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

tures in fifty years of American interest in Cuba. 
Throughout the entire period, the sympathies of the 
American people were strongly pro-Cuban. Money 
and supplies were contributed from time to time to 
assist the Cubans in their efforts to effect a change 
in their conditions, either through modification of 
Spanish laws, or by the road of independence. Only 
a minority of the Cubans sought to follow that road 
at that time. The movement for independence was 
not national until it was made so in 1895. What 
would have happened had we, at the time of the 
Ten Years' War, granted to the Cubans the rights 
of belligerents, is altogether a matter of speculation. 
Such a course was then deemed politically inexpe- 
dient. 




IX 

CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 

NLY by magnifying protests into revolts, 
and riots into revolutions, is it possible to 
show Cuba as the "land of revolutions" 
that many have declared it to be. The truth is 
that from the settlement of the island in 1512 until 
the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, there were 
only two experiences that can, by any proper use of 
the term, be called revolutions. This statement, of 
course, disputes a widely accepted notion, but many 
notions become widely accepted because of assertions 
that are not contradicted. That a strong under- 
current of discontent runs through all Cuba's history 
from 1820 to 1895, is true. That there were numer- 
ous manifestations of that discontent, and occasional 
attempts at revolution, is also true. But none of 
these experiences, prior to 1868, reached a stage that 
would properly warrant its description as a revolution. 
The term is very loosely applied to a wide range of 
experiences. It is customary to class as revolution 
all disorders from riots to rebellions. This is par- 
ticularly the case where the disorder occurs in some 
country other than our own. The Standard Dictionary 
defines the essential idea of revolution as "a change 



i 4 2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

in the form of government, or the constitution, or 
rulers, otherwise than as provided by the laws of 
succession, election, etc." The Century Dictionary 
defines such proceedings as "a radical change in 
social or governmental conditions; the overthrow of 
an established political system." Many exceedingly 
interesting parallels may be drawn between the ex- 
perience of the American colonies prior to their 
revolution, in 1775, and the experience of Cuba 
during the 19th Century. In fact, it may perhaps 
be said that there is no experience in Cuba's history 
that cannot be fairly paralleled in our own. In his 
History of the United States, Mr. Edward Channing 
says: "The governing classes of the old country 
wished to exploit the American colonists for their own 
use and behoof." Change the word "American" 
to "Spanish," and the Cuban situation is exactly 
defined. The situation in America in the 18th Cen- 
tury was almost identical with the situation in Cuba 
in the 19th Century. Both, in those respective 
periods, suffered from oppressive and restrictive 
trade laws and from burdensome taxation, from sub- 
ordination of their interests to the interests of the 
people of a mother-country three thousand miles 
away. Unfortunately for the Cubans, Spain was 
better able to enforce its exactions than England 
was. Cuba's area was limited, its available harbors 
few in number, its population small. 

Not until the years immediately preceding the 
revolutions by which the United States and Cuba 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 143 

secured their independence, was there any general 
demand for definite separation from the mother- 
country. The desire in both was a fuller measure 
of economic and commercial opportunity. One strik- 
ing parallel may be noted. The Tories, or "loyalists," 
in this country have their counterpart in the Cuban 
Autonomistas . Referring to conditions in 1763, Mr. 
Channing states that "never had the colonists felt a 
greater pride in their connection with the British 
empire. ,, Among the great figures of the pre-revo* 
lutionary period in this country, none stands out more 
clearly than James Otis, of Boston, and Patrick 
Henry, of Virginia. In an impassioned address, in 
1763, Otis declared that "every British subject in 
America is of common right, by acfte of Parliament, 
and by the laws of God and nature, entitled to all the 
essential privileges of Britons. What God in his 
Providence has united let no man dare attempt to 
pull asunder." Thirteen years later, the sundering 
blow was struck. Patrick Henry's resolutions sub- 
mitted to the Virginia House of Burgesses, in 1765, 
set that colony afire, but at that time neither he 
nor his associates desired separation and independence 
if their natural rights were recognized. It was not 
until the revolution of 1895 tnat tne independence 
of Cuba became a national demand, a movement 
based on realization of the hopelessness of further 
dependence upon Spain for the desired economic and 
fiscal relief. As in the American colonies there 
appeared, from time to time, individuals or isolated 



144 CUBA 0LD AND NEW 

groups who demanded drastic action on the part of 
the colonists, so were there Cubans who, from time 
to time, appeared with similar demands. Nathaniel 
Bacon headed a formidable revolution in Virginia 
in 1676. Massachusetts rebelled against Andros 
and Dudley in 1689. From the passage of the Navi- 
gation Adls, in the middle of the 17th Century, 
until the culmination in 1775, there was an under- 
current of friction and a succession of protests. The 
Cuban condition was quite the same excepting the 
facl: of burdens more grievous and more frequent 
open outbreaks. 

The records of many of the disorders are frag- 
mentary. Spain had no desire to give them pub- 
licity, and the Cubans had few means for doing so. 
The Report on the Census of Cuba, prepared by the 
War Department of the United States, in 1899, 
contains a summary of the various disorders in the 
island. The first is the rioting in 1717, when Captain- 
General Roja enforced the decree establishing a 
government monopoly in tobacco. The disturbances 
in Haiti and Santo Domingo (1791-1800) resulting 
in the establishment of independence in Haiti, under 
Toussaint, excited unimportant uprisings on the part 
of negroes in Cuba, but they were quickly sup- 
pressed. The first movement worthy of note came 
in 1823. It was a consequence of the general move- 
ment that extended throughout Spanish-America 
and resulted in the independence of all Spain's former 
colonies, excepting Cuba and Porto Rico. That the 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 145 

influence of so vast a movement should have been 
felt in Cuba was almost inevitable. As disorder 
continued throughout much of the time, the period 
1 826-1 830 is best considered collectively. The same 
influences were active, and the same forces were 
operative for the greater part of the term. The 
accounts of it all are greatly confused, and several 
nations were involved, including Spain, the United 
States, France, England, Mexico, and Colombia. 
The slavery question was involved, as was the ques- 
tion of the transfer of the island to some Power 
other than Spain. Independence was the aim of 
some, though probably no very great number. Prac- 
tically all of Cuba's later experiences have their 
roots in this period. During these ten years, the 
issue between Cubans who sought a larger national 
and economic life, and the Spanish element that 
insisted upon the continuance of Spanish absolu- 
tism, had its definite beginning, to remain a cause 
of almost constant friction for three-quarters of a 
century. The Spanish Constitution of 1812, abro- 
gated in 1 8 14, was again proclaimed in 1820, and 
again abrogated in 1823. The effort of Captain- 
General Vives, acting under orders from Ferdinand 
VII, to restore absolutism encountered both vigorous 
opposition and strong support. Secret societies were 
organized, whose exact purposes do not appear to 
be well known. Some have asserted that it was a 
Masonic movement, while others have held that the 
organizations were more in the nature of the Car- 



146 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

bonari. One of them, called the Soles de Bolivar, 
in some way gave its name to the immediate activities. 
It was charged with having planned a rebellion against 
the government, but the plans were discovered and 
the leaders were arrested. The movement appears 
to have been widespread, with its headquarters in 
Matanzas. An uprising was planned to take place 
on August 16, 1823, but on that day Jose Francisco 
Lemus, the leader, and a number of his associates 
were arrested and imprisoned. Among them was 
Jose Maria Heredia, the Cuban poet, who was, for 
this offence, condemned, in 1824, to perpetual exile 
for the crime of treason. 

Others engaged in the conspiracy fled the country. 
Some were officially deported. But the punishments 
imposed on these people served to excite the ani- 
mosity of many more, and a period of agitation fol- 
lowed, marked by occasional outbreaks and rioting. 
To meet the situation, an army intended to be 
employed in reconquering some of the colonies that 
had already declared and established their inde- 
pendence, was retained on the island. In 1825, 
a royal decree conferred on the Spanish Governor 
in Cuba a power practically absolute. This excited 
still further the anger of the Cuban element and led 
to other manifestations of discontent. There was a 
combination of political agitation with revolutionary 
demonstrations. In 1826, there was a local uprising 
in Puerto Principe, directed more particularly against 
the Spanish garrison, whose conduct was regarded as 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 147 

highly offensive. A year or two later, Cuban exiles in 
Mexico and Colombia, with support from the people 
of those countries, organized a secret society known 
as the "Black Eagle," having for its purpose a Cuban 
revolution. Its headquarters were in Mexico, and 
its activities were fruitless. Many were arrested 
and tried and sentenced to death or deportation. 
But Vives realized the folly of adding more fuel to 
the flames, and the sentences were in all cases either 
mitigated or revoked. This seems to have brought 
that particular series of conspiracies to an end. It 
was a time of active political agitation and conspiracy, 
with occasional local riots that were quickly sup- 
pressed. While much of it was revolutionary in 
its aims and purposes, none of it may with any 
fitness be called a revolution, unless a prevalence of 
a lively spirit of opposition and rebellion is to be so 
classed. The agitation settled down for a number 
of years, but broke out in local spasms occasionally. 
There were riots and disorders, but that is not 
revolution. It is to be remembered that the cause 
of all this disturbance was, in the main, an entirely 
creditable sentiment, quite as creditable as that 
which led the American colonists to resist the Stamp 
taxes and to destroy tea. It was a natural and 
righteous protest against oppression, a movement 
lasting for seventy-five years, for which Americans, 
particularly, should award praise rather than blame 
or carping criticism. Having done, in our own way, 
very much what the Cubans have done, in their way, 



148 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

we are not free to condemn them. The only real 
difference is that their methods were, on the whole, 
a little more strenuous than ours. Cuban blood 
was stirred by the successful revolutions in Mexico 
and in Spanish South America, and conditions in the 
island were contrasted with those in the then some- 
what new United States. Something of the part 
played by this country in the experiences of the 
time is presented in another chapter, on the relations 
of the two countries. 

The next movement worthy of note came in 1849, 
if we omit the quarrel, in 1837, between General 
Tacon and his subordinate, General Lorenzo, and 
the alleged proposal of the slaves in the neighbor- 
hood of Matanzas to rise and slaughter all the whites. 
Neither of these quite belongs in the revolutionary 
class. In 1847, a conspiracy was organized in the 
vicinity of Cienfuegos. Its leader was General 
Narciso Lopez. The movement was discovered, and 
some of the participants were imprisoned. Lopez 
escaped to the United States where he associated 
himself with a group of Cuban exiles, and opened 
correspondence with sympathizers in the island. 
They were joined by a considerable number of ad- 
venturous Americans, inspired by a variety of mo- 
tives. The declared purpose of the enterprise was 
independence as the alternative of reform in Spanish 
laws. An expedition was organized, but the plans 
became known and President Taylor, on August II, 
1849, issued a proclamation in which he declared 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 149 

that "an enterprise to invade the territories of a 
friendly nation, set on foot and prosecuted within 
the limits of the United States, is in the highest 
degree criminal." He therefore warned all citizens 
of the United States who might participate in such 
an enterprise that they would be subject to heavy 
penalties, and would forfeit the protection of their 
country. He also called on "every officer of this 
Government, civil or military, to use all efforts in 
his power to arrest for trial and punishment every 
such offender against the laws." The party was 
captured as it was leaving New York. The best 
evidence of the time is to the effect that there was in 
Cuba neither demand for nor support of such a move- 
ment, but Lopez and his associates, many of them 
Americans, persisted. A second expedition was ar- 
ranged, and a party of more than six hundred men, 
many of them American citizens, assembled on the 
island of Contoy, off the Yucatan coast, and on May 
19, 1850, landed at Cardenas. But there was no 
uprising on the part of the people. The Spanish 
authorities, informed of the expedition, sent ships 
by sea and troops by land. After a sharp skirmish, 
the invaders fled for their lives. Lopez and those who 
escaped with him succeeded in reaching Key West. 
He went to Savannah, where he was arrested but 
promptly liberated in response to public clamor. 
But even this did not satisfy the enthusiastic liberator 
of a people who did not want to be liberated in that 
way. He tried again in the following year. On 



1 5 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

August 3, 185 1, he sailed from near New Orleans, on 
the steamer Pampero, in command of a force of about 
four hundred, largely composed of young Americans 
who had been lured into the enterprise by assurance 
of thrilling adventure and large pay. They landed 
near Bahia Honda, about fifty miles west of Havana. 
Here, again, the Cubans refused to rise and join the 
invaders. Here, again, they encountered the Spanish 
forces by whom they were beaten and routed. Many 
were killed, some were captured, and others escaped 
into the surrounding country and were captured 
afterward. Lopez was among the captured. He was 
taken to Havana, and died by garrote in the little 
fortress La Punta. His first officer, Colonel Critten- 
den, and some fifty Americans were captured and 
taken to Atares, the fortress at the head of Havana 
harbor, where they were shot. For that somewhat 
brutal act, the United States could ask no indemnity. 
In violation of the laws of the United States, they 
had invaded the territory of a nation with which the 
country was at peace. In the initial issue of the 
New York Times, on October 18, 185 1, there appeared 
a review of the incident, presenting a contemporane- 
ous opinion of the experience. It was, in part, as 
follows : 

"Nothing can be clearer than the fact: that, for 
the present, at least, the inhabitants of Cuba do not 
desire their freedom. The opinion has very widely 
prevailed that the Cubans were grievously oppressed 
by their Spanish rulers, and that the severity of their 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 151 

oppression alone prevented them from making some 
effort to throw it off. The presence of an armed 
force in their midst, however small, it was supposed 
would summon them by thousands to the standard 
of revolt, and convert the colony into a free republic. 
Men high in office, men who had lived in Cuba and 
were supposed to be familiar with the sentiments of 
its people, have uniformly represented that they 
were ripe for revolt, and desired only the presence 
of a small military band to serve as a nucleus for 
their force. Believing that the Cuban population 
would aid them, American adventurers enlisted and 
were ruined. They found no aid. Not a Cuban 
joined them. They were treated as pirates and rob- 
bers from the first moment of their landing. Nor 
could they expect any other treatment in case of 
failure. They ceased to be American citizens the 
moment they set out, as invaders, for the shores 
of Cuba." 

The excitement of the Lopez incident was passing 
when it was revived, in 1854, by the Black Warrior 
experience, to which reference is made elsewhere. 
Another invasion was projected by exuberant and 
adventurous Americans. It was to sail from New 
Orleans under command of General Quitman, a former 
Governor of the State of Mississippi. No secret 
was made of the expedition, and Quitman openly 
boasted of his purposes, in Washington. The reports 
having reached the White House, President Pierce 
issued a proclamation warning "all persons, citizens 



1 52 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

of the United States and others residing therein" 
that the General Government would not fail to prose- 
cute with due energy all those who presumed to 
disregard the laws of the land and our treaty obliga- 
tions. He charged all officers of the United States 
to exert all their lawful power to maintain the author- 
ity and preserve the peace of the country. Quitman 
was arrested, and put under bonds to respecl: the 
neutrality laws. There was a limited uprising in 
Puerto Principe, in 1851, and a conspiracy was re- 
vealed, in Pinar del Rio, in 1852. A few years later 
the Liberal Club in Havana and the Cuban Junta 
in New York were reported as raising money and 
organizing expeditions. Some sailed, but they accom- 
plished little, except as the activities appear as a 
manifestation of the persistent opposition on the 
part of what was probably only a small minority of 
the Cuban people. For several years, the unrest 
and the agitation continued. Spain's blindness to 
the situation is puzzling. In his Cuba and Inter- 
national Relations, Mr. Callahan says: "Spain, after 
squandering a continent, had still clung tenaciously 
to Cuba; and the changing governments which had 
been born (in Spain) only to be strangled, held her 
with a taxing hand. While England had allowed 
her colonies to rule themselves, Spain had persisted 
in keeping Cuba in the same state of tutelage that 
existed when she was the greatest power in the world, 
and when the idea of colonial rights had not de- 
veloped." In Tomorrow in Cuba, Mr. Pepper notes 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 153 

that "though the conception of colonial home rule 
for Cuba was non-existent among the Spanish states- 
men of that day, the perception of it was clear on 
the part of the thinking people of the island. The 
educated and wealthy Cubans who in 1865 formed 
themselves into a national party and urged adminis- 
trative and economic changes upon Madrid felt 
the lack of understanding among Spanish statesmen. 
The concessions asked were not a broad application 
of civil liberties. When their programme was re- 
jected in its entirety they ceased to ask favors. They 
inaugurated the Ten Years' War." Regarding this 
action by the Cubans, Dr. Enrique Jose Varona, 
a distinguished Cuban and a former deputy to the 
Cortes, has stated that "before the insurrection of 
1868, the reform party which included the most 
enlightened, wealthy, and influential Cubans, ex- 
hausted all the resources within their reach to induce 
Spain to initiate a healthy change in her Cuban 
policy. The party started the publication of period- 
icals in Madrid and in the island, addressed petitions, 
maintained a great agitation throughout the country, 
and having succeeded in leading the Spanish Govern- 
ment to make an inquiry into the economic, political, 
and social conditions in Cuba, they presented a com- 
plete plan of government which satisfied public re- 
quirements as well as the aspirations of the people. 
The Spanish Government disdainfully cast aside the 
proposition as useless, increased taxation, and pro- 
ceeded to its exaction with extreme severity." Here 



154 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

we have evidence that even at that time Cuba did 
not seek its independence; the object was reform in 
oppressive laws and in burdensome taxation, a 
measure of self-government, under Spain, and a 
greater industrial and commercial freedom. It is 
most difficult to understand the short-sightedness 
of the Spanish authorities. The war soon followed 
the refusal of these entirely reasonable demands, 
and the course of the Cubans is entirely to their 
credit. An acceptance of the situation and a further 
submission would have shown them as contemptible. 
The details of a conflict that lasted for ten years 
are quite impossible of presentation in a few pages. 
Nor are they of value or interest to any except special 
students who can find them elaborately set forth in 
many volumes, some in Spanish and a few in English. 
Having tried once before to cover this period as 
briefly and as adequately as possible, I can do no 
better here than to repeat the story as told in an 
earlier work (Cuba and the Intervention). On the 
ioth of October, 1868, Carlos Manuel Cespedes 
and his associates raised the cry of Cuban inde- 
pendence at Yara, in the Province of Puerto Principe 
(now Camaguey). On the ioth of April, 1869, there 
was proclaimed the Constitution of the Cuban 
Republic. During the intervening months, there was 
considerable fighting, though it was largely in the 
nature of guerrilla skirmishing. The Spanish Minister 
of State asserted in a memorandum issued to Spain's 
representatives in other countries, under date of 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 155 

February 3, 1876, that at the outbreak of the in- 
surrection Spain had 7,500 troops, all told, in Cuba. 
According to General Sickels, at that time the Ameri- 
can Minister to Spain, this number was increased 
by reinforcements of 34,500 within the first year of 
the war. The accuracy of this information, however, 
has been questioned. Prior to the establishment of 
the so-called Republic, the affairs of the insurrection 
were in the hands of an Assembly of Representatives. 
On February 26, this body issued a decree proclaim- 
ing the abolition of slavery throughout the island, 
and calling upon those who thus received their free- 
dom to "contribute their efforts to the independence 
of Cuba." During the opening days of April, 1869, 
the Assembly met at Guiamaro. On the tenth of 
that month a government was organized, with a 
president, vice-president, general-in-chief of the army, 
secretaries of departments, and a parliament or 
congress. Carlos Manuel Cespedes was chosen as 
President, and Manuel de Quesada as General-in- 
Chief. A Constitution was adopted. Senor Morales 
Lemus was appointed as minister to the United 
States, to represent the new Republic, and to ask 
official recognition by the American Government. 
The government which the United States was asked 
to recognize was a somewhat vague institution. The 
insurrection, or revolution, if it may be so called, at 
this time consisted of a nominal central government, 
chiefly self-organized and self-elected, and various 
roving bands, probably numbering some thousands 



i 5 6 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

in their aggregate, of men rudely and incompetently 
armed, and showing little or nothing of military 
organization or method. 

Like all Cuban-Spanish wars and warfare, the 
destruction of property was a common procedure. 
Some of the methods employed for the suppression 
of the insurrection were not unlike those adopted 
by General Weyler in the later war. At Bayamo, 
on April 4, 1869, Count Valmaseda, the Spanish 
Commandant of that district, issued the following 
proclamation: 

1. Every man, from the age of fifteen years up- 
ward, found away from his place of habitation, who 
does not prove a justified reason therefor, will be 
shot. 

2. Every unoccupied habitation will be burned 
by the troops. 

3. Every habitation from which no white flag 
floats, as a signal that its occupants desire peace, 
will be reduced to ashes. 

In the summer of 1869, the United States essayed 
a reconciliation and an adjustment of the differences 
between the contestants. To this Spain replied 
that the mediation of any nation in a purely domestic 
question was wholly incompatible with the honor 
of Spain, and that the independence of Cuba was 
inadmissible as a basis of negotiation. Heavy rein- 
forcements were sent from Spain, and the strife 
continued. The commerce of the island was not 
greatly disturbed, for the reason that the great pro- 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 157 

ducing and commercial centres lay to the westward, 
and the military activities were confined, almost ex- 
clusively, to the eastern and central areas. In April, 
1874, Mr. Fish, then Secretary of State, reported 
that "it is now more than five years since the up- 
rising (in Cuba) and it has been announced with 
apparent authority, that Spain has lost upward of 
80,000 men, and has expended upward of #100,000,- 
000, in efforts to suppress it; yet the insurrection seems 
today as active and as powerful as it has ever been." 
Spain's losses among her troops were not due so 
much to the casualties of war as they were to the 
ravages of disease, especially yellow fever. The 
process, in which both parties would appear to be 
about equally culpable, of destroying property and 
taking life when occasion offered, proceedings which 
are hardly to be dignified by the name of war, con- 
tinued until the beginning of 1878. Throughout the 
entire period of the war, the American officials labored 
diligently for its termination on a basis that would 
give fair promise of an enduring peace. Many 
questions arose concerning the arrest of American 
citizens and the destruction of property of American 
ownership. Proposals to grant the Cubans the rights 
of belligerents were dismissed as not properly war- 
ranted by the conditions, and questions arose regard- 
ing the supply of arms and ammunition, from this 
country, by filibustering expeditions. References to 
Cuban affairs appear in many presidential messages, 
and the matter was a subject of much discussion and 



1 58 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

numerous measures in Congress. Diplomatic com- 
munication was constantly active. In his message 
of December 7, 1875, President Grant said: "The 
past year has furnished no evidence of an approaching 
termination of the ruinous conflict which has been 
raging for seven years in the neighboring island of 
Cuba. While conscious that the insurrection has 
shown a strength and endurance which make it at 
least doubtful whether it be in the power of Spain 
to subdue it, it seems unquestionable that no such 
civil organization exists which may be recognized 
as an independent government capable of performing 
its international obligations and entitled to be treated 
as one of the powers of the earth. " Nor did he then 
deem the grant of belligerent rights to the Cubans 
as either expedient or properly warranted by the 
circumstances. 

In 1878, Martinez Campos was Governor-General 
of Cuba, and Maximo Gomez was Commander-in- 
Chief of the Cuban forces. Both parties were weary 
of the prolonged hostilities, and neither was able to 
compel the other to surrender. Spain, however, 
professed a willingness to yield an important part 
of the demands of her rebellious subjects. Martinez 
Campos and Gomez met at Zanjon and, on February 
10, 1878, mutually agreed to what has been variously 
called a peace pact, a treaty, and a capitulation. 
The agreement was based on provisions for a redress 
of Cuban grievances through greater civil, political, 
and administrative privileges for the Cubans, with 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 159 

forgetfulness of the past and amnesty for all then 
under sentence for political offences. Delay in 
carrying these provisions into effect gave rise to an 
attempt to renew the struggle two years later, but 
the effort was a failure. 

Matters then quieted down for a number of years. 
The Cubans waited to see what would be done. The 
Spanish Governor-General still remained the supreme 
power and, aside from the abolition of slavery, the 
application of the Spanish Constitution and Spanish 
laws to Cuba, and Cuban representation in the Cortes, 
much of which was rather form than fact, the island 
gained little by the new conditions. Discontent and 
protest continued and, at last, broke again into open 
rebellion in 1895. 

The story of that experience is told in another chap- 
ter. In 1906, there came one of the most deplorable 
experiences in the history of the island, the first and 
only discreditable revolution. The causes of the 
experience are not open to our criticism. Our own 
records show too much of precisely the same kind 
of work, illegal registration, ballot box stuffing, 
threats and bribery. The first election in the new 
Republic was carried with only a limited and some- 
what perfunctory opposition to the candidacy of 
Estrada Palma. Before the second election came, in 
1905, he allied himself definitely with an organiza- 
tion then known as the Moderate party. The opposi- 
tion was known as the Liberal party. Responsibility 
for the disgraceful campaign that followed rests on 



160 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

both, almost equally. The particular difference lies 
in the fact that, the principal offices having been 
given to adherents of the Moderates, they were able 
to control both registration and election proceedings. 
But the methods employed by the opposition were no 
less censurable. Realizing defeat, the Liberals with- 
drew from the field, by concerted action, on the day 
of the election, and the Moderates elected every one 
of their candidates. Naturally, a feeling of bitter 
resentment was created, and there came, in the spring 
of 1906, rumors of armed revolt. In August, an 
actual insurrection was begun. Disgruntled political 
leaders gathered formidable bands in Pinar del Rio 
and in Santa Clara provinces. President Palma 
became seriously alarmed, even actually frightened. 
Through the United States Consul-General in Havana, 
he sent urgent appeals to Washington for naval and 
military aid. Mr. Taft, then Secretary of War, and 
Mr. Bacon, the Assistant Secretary of State, were 
sent to Havana to investigate and report on the situa- 
tion. They arrived in Havana on September 19. 
After ten days of careful and thorough study, and 
earnest effort to effect an adjustment, a proclamation 
was issued declaring the creation of a provisional 
government. This was accepted by both parties 
and the insurgent bands dispersed. Charles E. 
Magoon was sent down as Provisional Governor. 
Americans who are disposed to censure the Cubans 
for this experience in their history, may perhaps 
turn with profit to some little experiences in the 



CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS 161 

history of their own country in its political infancy, 
in 1786 and 1794. Those incidents do not relieve 
the Cubans of the censure to which they are open, 
but they make it a little difficult for us to condemn 
them with proper grace and dignity. The provisional 
government continued until January 28, 1909, when 
control was turned over to the duly elected officials, 
they being the same who withdrew from the polls, 
acknowledging defeat, in the election of 1905. 




X 

INDEPENDENCE 

|UBA'S final movement for independence began 
on February 24, 1895. Under the treaty of 
Zanjon, executed in 1878, Spain agreed to 
grant to the Cubans such reforms as would remove 
their grounds of complaint, long continued. The 
Cubans denied that the terms of the agreement had 
been kept. Those terms are indicated in a statement 
submitted by Tomas Estrada y Palma to Richard 
Olney, then Secretary of State of the United States. 
It bore the date of December 7, 1895. The com- 
munication sets forth, from the Cuban point of view, 
of course, the causes of the revolution of 1895. It 
says: 

"These causes are substantially the same as those 
of the former revolution, lasting from 1868 to 1878, 
and terminating only on the representation of the 
Spanish Government that Cuba would be granted 
such reforms as would remove the grounds of com- 
plaint on the part of the Cuban people. Unfortu- 
nately the hopes thus held out have never been 
realized. The representation which was to be given 
the Cubans has proved to be absolutely without 
character; taxes have been levied anew on every- 



INDEPENDENCE 163 

thing conceivable; the offices in the island have 
increased, but the officers are all Spaniards; the 
native Cubans have been left with no public duties 
whatsoever to perform, except the payment of taxes 
to the Government and blackmail to the officials, 
without privilege even to move from place to place 
in the island except on the permission of government 
authority. 

"Spain has framed laws so that the natives have 
substantially been deprived of the right of suffrage. 
The taxes levied have been almost entirely devoted 
to support the army and navy in Cuba, to pay 
interest on the debt that Spain has saddled on the 
island, and to pay the salaries of the vast number 
of Spanish office holders, devoting only $746,000 for 
internal improvements out of the $26,000,000 collected 
by tax. No public schools are in reach of the masses 
for their education. All the principal industries of 
the island are hampered by excessive imposts. Her 
commerce with every country but Spain has been 
crippled in every possible manner, as can readily 
be seen by the frequent protests of shipowners and 
merchants. 

"The Cubans have no security of person or prop- 
erty. The judiciary are instruments of the military 
authorities. Trial by military tribunals can be 
ordered at any time at the will of the Captain- 
General. There is, besides, no freedom of speech, 
press, or religion. In point of fact, the causes of the 
Revolution of 1775 in this country were not nearly 



i6 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

as grave as those that have driven the Cuban people 
to the various insurrections which culminated in the 
present revolution." 

Spain, of course, denied these charges, and asserted 
that the agreement had been kept in good faith. 
The Spanish Government may have been technically 
correct in its claim that all laws necessary to the 
fulfillment of its promises had been enacted. But 
it seems entirely certain that they had not been 
made effective. The conditions of the Cubans were 
in no way improved and, some time before the out- 
break, they began preparations for armed resistance. 
In Cuba and the Intervention (published in 1905) I 
have already written an outline review of the ex- 
perience of the revolution, and I shall here make 
use of extracts from that volume. The notable 
leader and instigator of the movement was Jose 
Marti, a patriot, a poet, and a dreamer, but a man 
of action. He visited General Maximo Gomez at 
his home in Santo Domingo, where that doughty 
old warrior had betaken himself after the conclusion 
of the Ten Years' War. Gomez accepted the com- 
mand of the proposed army of Cuban liberation. 
Antonio Maceo also accepted a command. He was a 
mulatto, an able and daring fighter, whose motives were 
perhaps a compound of patriotism, hatred of Spain, 
and a love for the excitement of warfare. Others 
whose names are wfitten large in Cuba's history 
soon joined the movement. A junta, or committee, 
was organized with headquarters in New York. After 



INDEPENDENCE 165 

the death of Marti, this was placed in charge of Tomas 
Estrada y Palma, who afterward became the first 
President of the new Republic. Its work was to 
raise funds, obtain and forward supplies and ammuni- 
tion, and to advance the cause in all possible ways. 
There were legal battles to be fought by and through 
this organization, and Mr. Horatio S. Rubens, a 
New York lawyer, was placed in charge of that de- 
partment. The twenty-fourth of February was set 
for the beginning of activities, but arms were lacking, 
and while the movement was actually begun on that 
day, the operations of the first six weeks or so were 
limited to numerous local uprisings of little moment. 
But the local authorities became alarmed, and martial 
law was proclaimed in Santa Clara and Matanzas 
provinces on the 27th. Spain became alarmed also, 
and immediately despatched General Martinez 
Campos as Governor-General of the island, to succeed 
General Calleja. He assumed command on April 
16. Maceo and his associates, among them his 
brother Jose, also a fighter of note, landed from Costa 
Rica on April 1. Marti, Gomez, and others, reached 
the island on the nth. Meanwhile, Bartolome Maso, 
an influential planter in Oriente, had been in com- 
mand of the forces in his vicinity. Many joined, and 
others stood ready to join as soon as they could be 
equipped. Engagements with the Spanish troops 
soon became a matter of daily occurrence, and Mar- 
tinez Campos realized that a formidable movement was 
on. Spain hurried thousands of soldiers to the island. 



166 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

For the first five months, the insurgents kept their 
opponents busy with an almost uninterrupted series 
of little engagements, a guerrilla warfare. In one 
of these, on May 19, Jose Marti was killed. His 
death was a severe blow to the patriots, but it served 
rather to inspire a greater activity than to check 
the movement. His death came in the effort of a 
small band of insurgents to pass the Spanish cordon 
designed to confine activities to Oriente Province. 
Immediately after the death of Marti, Maximo 
Gomez crossed that barrier and organized an army 
in Camaguey. The first engagement properly to 
be regarded as a battle occurred at Peralejo, near 
Bayamo, in Oriente, about the middle of July. The 
respective leaders were Antonio Maceo and General 
Martinez Campos, in person. The victory fell to 
Maceo, and Martinez Campos barely eluded capture. 
The engagements of the Ten Years' War were con- 
fined to the then sparsely settled eastern half of the 
island. Those of the revolution of 1895 covered the 
greater part of the island, sweeping gradually but 
steadily from east to west. During my first visit 
to Cuba, I was frequently puzzled by references 
to "the invasion." "What invasion?" I asked, 
"Who invaded the country?" I found that it meant 
the westward sweep of the liberating army under 
Gomez and Maceo. It covered a period of more 
than two years of frequent fighting and general de- 
struction of property. Early in the operations 
Gomez issued the following proclamation: 



INDEPENDENCE 167 

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY 
OF LIBERATION 

Najasa, Camaguey, July 1, 1895. 
To the Planters and Owners of Cattle Ranches: 

In accord with the great interests of the revolution 
for the independence of the country, and for which we 
are in arms: 

Whereas, all exploitations of any producl whatsoever 
are aids and resources to the Government that we are 
fighting, it is resolved by the general-in-chief to issue 
this general order throughout the island, that the intro- 
duclion of articles of commerce, as well as beef and 
cattle, into the towns occupied by the enemy, is abso- 
lutely prohibited. The sugar plantations will stop 
their labors, and those who shall attempt to grind the crop 
notwithstanding this order, will have their cane burned 
and their buildings demolished. The person who, 
disobeying this order, shall try to profit from the present 
situation of affairs, will show by his conducl little re- 
sped for the rights of the revolution of redemption, and 
therefore shall be considered as an enemy, treated as a 
traitor, and tried as such in case of his capture. 

{Signed) MAXIMO GOMEZ, 
The General-in-Chief. 

This proved only partially effective, and it was 
followed by a circular to commanding officers, a 
few months later, reading thus: 



168 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF 
LIBERATION 

Territory of Sandti Spiritus, November 6, 1895. 

Animated by the spirit of unchangeable resolution in 
defence of the rights of the revolution of redemption of 
this country of colonists, humiliated and despised by 
Spain, and in harmony with what has been decreed 
concerning the sub j eel in the circular dated the 1st of 
July, I have ordered the following: 

Article I. That all plantations shall be totally 
destroyed, their cane and outbuildings burned, and 
railroad connections destroyed. 

Article II. All laborers who shall aid the sugar 
fa dories — these sources of supplies that we must de- 
prive the enemy of — shall be considered as traitors to 
their country. 

Article III. All who are caught in the aft, or whose 
violation of Article II shall be proven, shall be shot. 
Let all chiefs of operations of the army of liberty comply 
with this order, determined to furl triumphantly, even 
over ruin and ashes, the flag of the Republic of Cuba. 

In regard to the manner of waging the war, follow the 
private instructions that I have already given. 

For the sake of the honor of our arms and your well- 
known courage and patriotism, it is expefted that you 
will striftly comply with the above orders. 

(Signed) MAXIMO GOMEZ, 
General-in-Chief. 



INDEPENDENCE 169 

To peace-loving souls, all this sounds very brutal, 
but all war is brutal and barbarous. In our strife 
in the Philippines, from 1899 to 1902, many of us 
were proud to be told that we were conducting a 
"humane war." There is no such thing. The very 
terms are contradictory. Gomez had declared that if 
Spain would not give up Cuba to the Cubans, the 
Cubans would themselves render the island so worth- 
less and desolate a possession that Spain could not 
afford to hold it. Short of further submission to a 
rule that was, very rightly, regarded as no longer 
endurable, no other course was open to them. 
Another proclamation appeared a few days later. 

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF 
LIBERATION 

Sancti Spiritus, November II, 1895. 

To Honest Men, Victims of the Torch: 

The painful measure made necessary by the revolution 
of redemption drenched in innocent blood from Hatuey 
to our own times by cruel and merciless Spain will 
plunge you in misery. As general-in-chief of the army 
of liberation, it is my duty to lead it to viclory, without 
permitting myself to be restrained or terrified, by any 
means necessary to place Cuba in the shortest time in 
possession of her dearest ideal. I therefore place the 
responsibility for so great a ruin on those who look on 
impassively and force us to those extreme measures 
which they then condemn like dolts and hypocrites as 



iyo CUBA OLD AND NEW 

they are. After so many years of supplication, humili- 
ation, contumely, banishment, and death, when this 
people, of its own will, has arisen in arms, there re- 
mains no solution but to triumph, it matters not wha£ 
means are employed to accomplish it. 

This people cannot hesitate between the wealth of 
Spain and the liberty of Cuba. Its greatest crime would 
be to stain the land with blood without effe cling its 
purposes because of puerile scruples and fears which do 
not concur with the character of the men who are in the 
field, challenging the fury of an army which is one of 
the bravest in the world, but which in this war is without 
enthusiasm or faith, ill-fed and unpaid. The war did 
not begin February 24.; it is about to begin now. 

The war had to be organized; it was necessary to 
calm and lead into the proper channels the revolutionary 
spirit always exaggerated in the beginning by wild 
enthusiasm. The struggle ought to begin in obedience 
to a plan and method more or less studied, as the result 
of the peculiarities of this war. This has already been 
done. Let Spain now send her soldiers to rivet the 
chains on her slaves; the children of this land are in 
the field, armed with the weapons of liberty. The 
struggle will be terrible, but success will crown the 
revolution and the efforts of the oppressed. 

{Signed) MAXIMO GOMEZ, 
General-in-Chief. 

Such an address doubtless savors of bombast to 
many Americans, but in the history of political and 



INDEPENDENCE 171 

military oratory in their own land they can find an 
endless number of speeches that, in that particular 
quality, rival if they do not surpass it. The Cuban 
situation was desperate, and the Cuban attitude 
was one of fixed determination. Productive industry 
was generally suppressed, and much property was 
destroyed, by both Cubans and Spaniards. This 
necessarily threw many out of employment, and drove 
them into the insurgent ranks. The Cubans are a 
peaceful people. All desired relief from oppressive 
conditions, but many did not want war. While 
many entered the army from patriotic motives, many 
others were brought into it only as a consequence of 
conditions created by the conflict. The measures 
adopted were severe, but decision of the contest by 
pitched battles was quite impossible. The quoted 
figures are somewhat unreliable, but the Spanish 
forces outnumbered the Cubans by at least five to 
one, and they could obtain freely the supplies and 
ammunition that the Cubans could obtain only by 
filibustering expeditions. The Cubans, therefore, 
adopted a policy, the only policy that afforded 
promise of success. Spain poured in fresh troops 
until, by the close of 1895, lts army is reported as 
numbering 200,000 men. 

The Cubans carried the contest westward from 
Oriente and Camaguey, through Santa Clara, and 
into the provinces of Matanzas, Havana, and Pinar 
del Rio. 

The trocha ^across the island, from Jucaro on the 



i 7 2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

south to Moron on the north, originally constructed 
during the Ten Years' War, was a line of block- 
houses, connected by barbed wire tangles, along a 
railway. This obstructed but did not stop the 
Cuban advance. The authorities declared martial 
law in the provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio 
on January 2, 1896. Gomez advanced to Marianao, 
at Havana's very door, and that city was terrified. 
Maceo was operating immediately beyond him in 
Pinar del Rio, through the most important part of 
which he swept with torch and machete. The 
Spaniards built a trocha there from Mariel south- 
ward. Maceo crossed it and continued his work 
of destruction, in which large numbers of the people 
of the region joined. He burned and destroyed 
Spanish property; the Spaniards, in retaliation, 
burned and destroyed property belonging to Cubans. 
Along the highway from Marianao to Guanajay, out 
of many stately country residences, only one was 
left standing. Villages were destroyed and hamlets 
were wrecked. On one of his expeditions in December, 
1896, Maceo was killed near Punta Brava, within 
fifteen miles of Havana. Gomez planned this west- 
ward sweep, from Oriente, six hundred miles away, 
but to Antonio Maceo belongs a large part of the 
credit for its execution. The weakness of the Ten 
Years' War was that it did not extend beyond the 
thinly populated region of the east; Gomez and 
Maceo carried their war to the very gates of the 
Spanish strongholds. There were occasional con- 



INDEPENDENCE 173 

flicts that might well be called battles, but much of 
it was carried on by the Cubans by sudden and 
unexpected dashes into Spanish camps or moving 
columns, brief but sometimes bloody encounters from 
which the attacking force melted away after inflict- 
ing such damage as it could. Guerrilla warfare is 
not perhaps a respectable method of fighting. It 
involves much of what is commonly regarded as 
outlawry, of pillage and of plunder, of destruction 
and devastation. These results become respectable 
only when attained through conventional processes, 
and are in some way supposed to be ennobled by 
those processes. But they sometimes become the 
only means by which the weak can meet the strong. 
Such they seemed to be in the Cuban revolt against 
the Spaniards, when Maximo Gomez and Antonio 
Maceo made guerrilla warfare almost a military 
science. Gomez formulated his plan of campaign, 
but, with the means at his disposal, its successful 
execution was possible only by the methods adopted. 
At all events, it succeeded. The Cubans were not 
strong enough to drive Spain out of the island by 
force of arms, but they showed themselves uncon- 
querable by the Spanish troops. They had once carried 
on a war for ten years in a limited area; by the 
methods adopted, they could repeat that experience 
practically throughout the island. They could at 
least keep insurrection alive until Spain should yield 
to their terms, or until the United States should be 
compelled to intervene. No great movements, but 



174 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

constant irritation, and the suspension of all industry, 
was the policy adopted and pursued for the year 

1897. 

But there was another side to it all, a different 
line of activity. Immediately after his arrival on 
the island, on April II, 1895, Marti had issued a call 
for the selection of representatives to form a civil 
government. He was killed before this was effected. 
An assembly met, at Jimaguayu, in Camaguey, on 
September 13, 1895. I* consisted of twenty members, 
representing nearly all parts of the island. Its 
purpose was the organization of a Cuban Republic. 
On the 16th, it adopted a Constitution and, on the 
1 8th, elected, as President, Salvador Cisneros Betan- 
court, and as Vice-President, Bartolome Maso. 
Secretaries and sub-secretaries were duly chosen, 
and all were formally installed. Maximo Gomez was 
officially appointed as General-in-Chief of the army, 
with Antonio Maceo as Lieutenant General. Tomas 
Estrada y Palma was chosen as delegate plenipoten- 
tiary and general agent abroad, with headquarters 
in New York. Both civil and military organizations 
were, for a time, crude and somewhat incoherent. It 
could not be otherwise. They were engaged in a 
movement that could only succeed by success. Arms 
and money were lacking. The civil government was 
desirable in a field that the military arm could not 
cover. Action lay with the military and with the 
Cuban Junta in the United States. The latter 
organization immediately became active. Calls were 



INDEPENDENCE 175 

made for financial assistance and liberal responses 
were made, chiefly by Cubans. In 1896 and 1897, 
bonds were issued and sold, or were exchanged for 
supplies and munitions of war. For a number of 
years scandalous stories were afloat declaring that 
these bonds were printed by the acre, and issued, 
purely for speculative purposes, to the extent of 
millions upon millions of dollars. The truth is that 
every bond printed, whether issued or unissued, has 
been fully accounted for, the actual issue being about 
$2,200,000. Provision was made in Cuba's Constitu- 
tion for the recognition of this indebtedness, and it 
has since been discharged, while the plates and the 
unused bonds have been destroyed. There may have 
been speculation in the bonds, as there was in the 
bonds issued by the United States during the Civil 
War, but Cuba's conduct in the whole matter has 
been honest and most honorable. In that matter 
certainly, its detractors have been confounded. The 
principal difficulty encountered by the junta was 
the despatch to Cuba of the men and the munitions 
so greatly needed by those in the field. That, 
however, is a story that I shall endeavor to tell, in 
part, in another chapter. It cannot now, if ever, 
be told in full. 

Meanwhile, a complicated political situation de- 
veloped. The story is too long and too complicated 
for review in detail. It may be given in general 
outline. The Peace of 1878 was followed by the or- 
ganization of political parties, the Liberal and the 



176 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

Union Constitutional. At first, there was compara- 
tively little difference in the essence of their respective 
platforms, but the lines diverged as the situation de- 
veloped. The Liberal party became, and remained, 
the Cuban party, and the Union Constitutional 
became the Spanish party. Later on, the Liberals 
became the Autonomists. Their object, for twenty 
years, was reform in conditions under the rule of 
Spain. There was no independence party. That 
was organized, in 1895, by Marti, Gomez, Maceo, 
Maso, and their associates. It had only one plank 
in its platform — Cuba Libre y Independiente — 
whatever the cost to the island and its people. 
"The Autonomist group," says Mr. Pepper, in his 
Tomorrow in Cuba, "became as much a political 
party as it could become under Spanish institutions. " 
It grew in strength and influence, and continued its 
agitation persistently and stubbornly. The Spanish 
Cortes busied itself with discussion of Cuban affairs, 
but reached no conclusions, produced no results. 
In 1893, there came the definite organization of the 
Reformist party, with aims not differing greatly from 
those of the Autonomistas . But Spain delayed until 
Marti and his followers struck their blow. Official 
efforts to placate them failed utterly, as did efforts 
to intimidate them or to conquer them. The Auton- 
omists declared their support of the existing Govern- 
ment, and rebuked the insurgents in a manifesto 
issued on April 4, 1895, s * x weeks after the outbreak. 
They only succeeded in antagonizing both sides, the 



INDEPENDENCE 177 

Spanish authorities and the revolutionists. Spain, 
greatly alarmed, recalled Martinez Campos and sent 
out Weyler to succeed him. Had Spain followed the 
advice of Martinez Campos, the failure of the insur- 
rection would have been little short of certain. It 
sent out Weyler, on whom the Cubans, twenty years 
earlier, had conferred the title of "Butcher." This 
step threw to the side of the insurgents the great 
mass of the middle class Cubans who had previously 
wavered in uncertainty, questioning the success of 
revolution while adhering to its general object. 
Weyler instituted the brutal policy that came to be 
known as reconcentration. It may be said, in a 
way, that the Cuban forces themselves instituted 
this policy. To clear the country in which they were 
operating, they had ordered all Spaniards and Span- 
ish sympathizers to betake themselves to the cities 
and towns occupied by Spanish garrisons. This was 
inconvenient for its victims, but its purpose was 
humane. Gomez also sought to concentrate the 
Cubans, particularly the women and children, in 
the recesses of the hills where they would be less 
exposed to danger than they would be in their homes. 
This also was a humane purpose. 

Weyler's application of this policy was utterly 
brutal. The people of the country were herded in 
prison camps, in settlements surrounded by stock- 
ades or trenches beyond which they might not pass. 
No provision was made for their food or maintenance. 
The victims were non-combatants, women, and 



178 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

children. In his message of December, 1897, Presi- 
dent McKinley said of this system, as applied by 
Weyler, "It was not civilized warfare; it was ex- 
termination. The only peace it could beget was that 
of the wilderness and the grave." In my experience 
as a campaign correspondent in several conflicts, I 
have necessarily seen more or less of gruesome sights, 
the result of disease and wounds, but I have seen 
nothing in any way comparable, in horror and piti- 
fulness, to the victims of this abominable system. 
To describe their condition in detail would be little 
short of offensive, those groups of hopeless, helpless 
sufferers who lingered only until death came and kindly 
put them out of their misery and pain. But by 
this time, two forces had come into active operation, 
dire alarm in Spain and wrath and indignation in 
the United States. Weyler had failed as Martinez 
Campos, when leaving the island, predicted. He 
was recalled, and was succeeded, on October 31, 
1897, by General Blanco. The new incumbent 
tried conciliation, but it failed. The work had gone 
too far. The party in the field had become the 
dominant party, not to be suppressed either by force 
of arms or by promises of political and economic 
reform. At last, Spain yielded. Outside pressure 
on Madrid, chiefly from the United States, prevailed. 
A scheme for Cuban autonomy was devised and, 
on January 1, 1898, was put into effect. But it 
came too late. It was welcomed by many non-par- 
ticipants in the war, and a form of government 



INDEPENDENCE 179 

was organized under it. But the party then domi- 
nant, the army in the field, distrusted the arrange- 
ment and would have none of it. All overtures 
were rejected and the struggle continued. On Feb- 
ruary 15, 1898, came the disaster to the battleship 
Maine, in the harbor of Havana. On April nth, 
President McKinley's historic message went to Con- 
gress, declaring that "the only hope of relief and 
repose from a condition which can no longer be 
endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba," and 
asking for power and authority to use the military 
and naval forces of the United States to effect a 
termination of the strife in Cuba. Such, in the 
briefest possible outline, is the record of this eventful 
period, eventful alike for Cuba and for the United 
States. 

During this struggle, the people of the United 
States became deeply interested in the affairs of the 
island, and the Administration in Washington became 
gravely concerned by them. A preceding chapter, 
on the United States and Cuba, dropped the matter 
of the relations of this country to the island at the 
end of the Ten Years' War, but the relations were by 
no means dropped, nor were they even suspended. 
The affairs of the island appear again and again in 
diplomatic correspondence and in presidential mes- 
sages. The platform of the Republican party, 
adopted at the national convention in St. Louis, 
on June 18, 1896, contained the following: "From 
the hour of achieving their own independence, the 



180 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

people of the United States have regarded with 
sympathy the struggles of other American peoples 
to free themselves from European domination. We 
watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic 
battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and 
oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full 
success of their determined contest for liberty. The 
Government of Spain having lost control of Cuba 
and being unable to protect the property or lives of 
resident American citizens, or to comply with its 
treaty obligations, we believe that the Government 
of the United States should actively use its influence 
and good offices to restore peace and give independ- 
ence to the island." The Democratic party platform 
of the same year stated that "we extend our sym- 
pathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle 
for liberty and independence." The platform of the 
People's party likewise expressed sympathy, and 
declared the belief that the time had come when 
"the United States should recognize that Cuba is 
and of right ought to be a free and independent 
State." This may be regarded as the almost unani- 
mous opinion of the people of this country at that 
time. In 1896 and 1897 many resolutions were 
introduced in the Congress urging action for the 
recognition of Cuban independence. There was fre- 
quent and prolonged debate on the question, but no 
final action was taken. In his message of December, 
1897, President McKinley said: "Of the untried 
measures (regarding Cuba) there remain only: Rec- 



p 

< * 

o g 



* E 

o ^ 
u 



INDEPENDENCE 



181 



ognition of the insurgents as belligerents; recognition 
of the independence of Cuba; neutral intervention 
to end the war by imposing a rational compromise 
between the contestants; and intervention in favor 
of one or the other party. I speak not of forcible 
annexation, for that cannot be thought of. That, 
by our code of morality, would be criminal 
aggression." 

Recognition of the Cubans as belligerents would 
have effected a radical change in the situation. It 
would have given the Cubans the right to buy in 
the American market the arms and supplies that 
they could then only obtain surreptitiously, that they 
could only ship by "filibustering expeditions," by 
blockade-runners. In law, the propriety of granting 
belligerent rights depends upon the establishment 
of certain facts, upon the proof of the existence of 
certain conditions. Those conditions did then exist 
in Cuba. An unanswerable argument was submitted 
by Horatio S. Rubens, Esq., the able counsel of the 
Cuban junta in New York. The Cubans never asked 
for intervention by the United States; they did, 
with full justification, ask for recognition as belliger- 
ents. The consent of this country was deemed inex- 
pedient on political rather than on moral grounds. 
Had it suited the purposes of this country to grant 
that right, very much the same arguments would 
have been made in support of the course as those that 
were used to support the denial of Cuba's requests. 
Recognition of Cuban independence, or intervention 



1 82 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

in favor of the Cubans, would have been the equiva- 
lent of the grant of belligerent rights. But the 
policy adopted, and the course pursued, did not serve 
to avert war with Spain. The story of that war 
has been written by many, and is not for inclusion 
here. The treaty of peace was signed, in Paris, on 
December 10, 1898, duly ratified by both parties in 
the following months, and was finally proclaimed on 
April 11, 1899. The war was over, but its definite 
termination was officially declared on the anniversary 
of the issuance of President McKinley's war message. 
On January 1, 1899, the American flag was hoisted 
throughout the island, as a signal of full authority, 
but sub j eel: to the provisions of the Teller Amend- 
ment to the Joint Resolution of Congress, of April 
20, 1898, thus: 

"That the United States hereby disclaims any 
disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, 
jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for 
the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, 
when that is accomplished, to leave the government 
and control of the Island to its people." 

At twelve o'clock, noon, on the 20th of May, 1902, 
there was gathered in the State Apartment of the 
Palace occupied by many Spanish Governors-General, 
the officials of the United States, the elected 
officials of the new Cuban Republic, and a limited 
number of guests. In that same apartment, General 
Castellanos signed the abdication of Spanish author- 
ity. In its turn, pursuant to its pledges, the United 



INDEPENDENCE 183 

States transferred authority to the President of the 
Cuban Republic. Four centuries of subjection, and 
a century of protest and struggle, were there and then 
ended, and Cuba joined the sisterhood of independent 
nations. 



XI 

FILIBUSTERING 



7 HE term "filibuster" affords an interesting 
example of the way in which words and their 
uses become twisted into something alto- 
gether different from their original meaning. It 
comes from a Dutch word, several centuries old, 
vrijbuiter, or free vessel or boat. It got somehow 
into English as "freebooter," and into Spanish as 
filibustero. The original referred to piracy. Two or 
three centuries later, it meant an engagement in 
unauthorized and illegal warfare against foreign 
States, in effect, piratical invasions. In time, it 
came into use to describe the supply of military 
material to revolutionists, and finally to obstruction 
in legislative proceedings. In his message of June 
13, 1870, President Grant said that "the duty of 
opposition to filibustering has been admitted by every 
President. Washington encountered the efforts of 
Genet and the French revolutionists; John Adams, 
the projects of Miranda; Jefferson, the schemes of 
Aaron Burr. Madison and subsequent Presidents 
had to deal with the question of foreign enlistment 
and equipment in the United States, and since the 
days of John Quincy Adams it has been one of the 



FILIBUSTERING 185 

constant cares of the Government in the United 
States to prevent piratical expeditions against the 
feeble Spanish American Republics from leaving our 
shores." 

In 1806, Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan patriot 
whose revolutionary activities preceded those of 
Simon Bolivar, sailed from New York on what would 
have been called, some years later, a filibustering 
expedition. His three vessels were manned chiefly 
by Americans. There are always those whose love 
of excitement and adventure, sometimes mixed with 
an active sympathy for an under dog, leads them 
to engage in such an enterprise. This one was 
productive of no important results. There were 
plenty of American pirates and privateers in earlier 
days, but I have found no record of any earlier 
actual expedition whose purpose was the creation of 
a new republic. But during the next hundred 
years, including the considerable number of Ameri- 
cans who have engaged in the present disorder in 
Mexico, such enterprises have been numerous. 
Among the most notable are the several Lopez 
expeditions to Cuba, about 1850, and the Walker 
expeditions to Lower California, Nicaragua, and 
Honduras, a few years later. The steamer Virginius, 
to which reference is made in another chapter, was 
engaged in filibustering when she was captured, in 
1873, and many of her crew and passengers unlawfully 
executed, by Spanish authority, in Santiago. But 
that was only one of many similar enterprises during 



1 86 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

the Ten Years' War in Cuba. It is very doubtful 
if the war could have continued as it did without 
them. During our own Civil War, we called such 
industries "blockade-running," but it was all quite 
the same sort of thing. The Confederate army- 
needed arms, ammunition, medicine, and supplies 
of many kinds. On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln 
proclaimed a blockade of the ports of the seceded 
States, with a supplementary proclamation on the 
27th that completed the line, and thus tied the 
South hand and foot. In his History of the United 
States, Elson notes that raw cotton could be bought in 
Southern ports for four cents a pound while it was 
worth $2.50 a pound in Liverpool, and that a ton 
of salt worth seven or eight dollars in Nassau, a few 
miles off the coast, was worth #1700 in gold in 
Richmond before the close of the war, all because 
of the blockade. 

There is, naturally, a lack of detail regarding the 
many expeditions, large and small, of the Ten Years' 
War, but they began soon after the opening of hostil- 
ities. In his Diary, Gideon Welles notes, under 
date of April 7, 1869, the prevalence of "rumors 
of illegal expeditions fitting out in our country to 
aid the Cuban insurgents," and states that "our 
countrymen are in sympathy with them." In Decem- 
ber, of that year, President Grant reported that a 
number of illegal expeditions had been broken up, 
but did not refer to those that had succeeded. In 
October, 1870, he issued a general proclamation, 



FILIBUSTERING 187 

without specific reference to Cuba, warning all per- 
sons against engagement in such expeditions. During 
the years of the war, Spanish warships, at different 
times, seized American vessels, a proceeding which 
led to some active diplomatic negotiation, and which, 
on several occasions, threatened to involve this 
country in war with Spain. The problem of the 
industry variously known as filibustering, blockade- 
running, gun-running, and the shipment of contra- 
band, has two ends. There is, first, the task of getting 
the shipment out of one country, and, second, the 
task of getting it into another country. While it 
is generally classed as an unlawful enterprise, there 
frequently arises a difficulty in proving violation of 
law, even when goods are seized and the participants 
arrested. There is, perhaps, a moral question in- 
volved also. Such shipments may be a violation of 
the law. They are generally so regarded. But they 
may be, as in the case of the struggling Cubans, 
struggling against actual and generally admitted 
wrongs, the only means of serving a worthy and 
commendable end. There is no doubt that, in Cuba's 
revolution of 1895, Americans who knew about the 
work were prone to regard a successful expedition 
to the island with satisfaction if not with glee. They 
were inclined to regard those engaged as worthy 
patriots rather than as law-breakers. 

Under date of February 23, 1898, the House of 
Representatives requested the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury to inform that body "at the earliest date pradti- 



1 88 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

cable, if not incompatible with the public service, 
what has been done by the United States to prevent 
the conveyance to the Cubans of articles produced 
in the United States, and what to prevent 'filibuster- 
ing,' and with what results, giving particulars, and 
at what expense to the United States." A reply 
was sent on the 28th. It makes a very good showing 
for the activities of the officials responsible for the 
prevention of such expeditions, but from all I can 
learn about the matter, it is quite incomplete. There 
were a number of excursions not set down in the 
official records. Sailing dates and time and place 
of arrival were not advertised in the daily papers. 

The official statement shows that sixty reports of 
alleged filibustering expeditions were brought to 
the attention of the Treasury Department; that 
twenty-eight of them were frustrated through efforts 
of the Department; that five were frustrated by the 
United States Navy; four by Spain; two wrecked; 
one driven back by storm; one failed through a 
combination of causes; and seventeen that may be 
regarded as successful expeditions. The records of 
the Cuban junta very materially increase the number 
in the latter class. The despatch of these expeditions 
was a three-cornered battle of wits. The groups 
engaged were the officials of the United States, the rep- 
resentatives of Spain, and the agents of the revolu- 
tion. The United States employed the revenue service 
and the navy, aided on land by the Customs Service, 
the Secret Service, and other Federal officers. 



FILIBUSTERING 189 

The official representatives of Spain employed 
scores of detectives and Spanish spies. The Cuban 
group sought to outwit them all, and succeeded 
remarkably well in doing so. A part of the story has 
been told, with general correctness, in a little volume 
entitled A Captain Unafraid, described as The Strange 
Adventures of Dynamite Johnny O'Brien, This man, 
really a remarkable man in his special line, was born 
in New York, in 1837, and, at the time this is written, 
is still living. He was born and grew to boyhood 
in the shadow of the numerous shipyards then in 
active operation along the East River. The yards 
were his playground. At thirteen years of age, he 
ran away and went to see as cook on a fishing sloop. 
He admits that he could not then "cook a pot of 
water without burning it," but claims that he could 
catch cod-fish where no one else could find them. 
From fisherman, sailing-master on private yachts, 
schooner captain, and officer in the United States 
Navy in the Civil War, he became a licensed East 
River pilot in New York. He became what might 
be called a professional filibuster at the time of the 
revolution in Colombia, in 1885, following that with 
similar experience in a revolt in Honduras two years 
later. The Cubans landed a few expeditions in 1895, 
but a greater number were blocked. In March, 
1896, they applied to O'Brien and engaged him to 
command the Bermuda, then lying in New York and 
ready to sail. Captain O'Brien reports that her 
cargo included "2,500 rifles, a 12-pounder Hotchkiss 



190 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

field-gun, 1,500 revolvers, 200 short carbines, 1000 
pounds of dynamite, 1,200 machetes, and an abun- 
dance of ammunition." All was packed in boxes 
marked "codfish," and "medicines." 

The Bermuda sailed the next morning, March 15, 
with O'Brien in command, cleared for Vera Cruz. 
The Cubans, including General Calixto Garcia, who 
were to go on the expedition, were sent to Atlantic 
City, there to engage a fishing sloop to take them 
off-shore where they would be picked up by the 
Bermuda on her way. The ship was under suspicion, 
and was followed down the bay by tugboats carrying 
United States marshals, customs officers, and news- 
paper reporters. O'Brien says: "They hung on to 
us down through the lower bay and out past Sandy 
Hook, without getting enough to pay for a pound 
of the coal they were furiously burning to keep up 
with us. I don't know how far they might have 
followed us, but when we were well clear of the Hook, 
a kind fortune sent along a blinding snow-storm, 
which soon chased them back home." General 
Garcia and his companions were picked up as planned, 
and that part of the enterprise was completed. The 
vessel was on its way. A somewhat roundabout 
route was taken in order to avoid any possible over- 
hauling by naval or revenue ships. The point selected 
for the landing was a little harbor on the north coast 
about thirty miles from the eastern end of the island. 
The party included two Cuban pilots, supposed to 
know the coast where they were to land. One of 



FILIBUSTERING i 9 i 

them proved to be a traitor and the other, O'Brien 
says, "was at best an ignoramus. " The traitor, who, 
after the landing, paid for his offence with his life, tried 
to take them into the harbor of Baracoa, where lay five 
Spanish warships. But O'Brien knew the difference, as 
shown by his official charts, between the Cape Maisi 
light, visible for eighteen miles, and the Baracoa light, 
visible for only eight miles, and kicked the pilot off 
the bridge. The landing was begun at half-past ten 
at night, and completed about three o'clock in the 
morning, with five Spanish warships barely more 
than five miles away. The United States Treasury 
Department reported this expedition as "successful." 
The vessel then proceeded to Honduras, where it took 
on a cargo of bananas, and returned, under orders, 
to Philadelphia, the home city of its owner, Mr. 
John D. Hart. Arrests were made soon after the 
arrival, including Hart, the owner of the vessel, 
O'Brien, and his mate, and General Emilio Nunez 
who accompanied the expedition as the representative 
of the junta. The case was transferred from the 
courts in Philadelphia to New York, and there duly 
heard. The alleged offenders were defended by 
Horatio Rubens, Esq., of New York, the official coun- 
sel of the junta. One of the grounds of the defence 
was that the defendants might be guilty of smuggling 
arms into Cuba, but with that offence the courts 
of the United States had nothing to do. The jury 
disagreed. The indictments were held over the heads 
of the members of the group, but no further action 



i 9 2 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

was taken, and two or three years later the case 
was dismissed by order of the Attorney General 
of the United States. 

This expedition fairly illustrates the science of 
filibustering in its elementary form, a clearance with 
some attendant risk; a voyage with possibility of 
interference at any time; and a landing made with 
still greater risk and danger of capture. The trip 
had been made so successfully and with such full 
satisfaction to the promoters that the junta urged 
O'Brien to remain with them as long as there should 
be need for his services, and he agreed to do so. A 
department of expeditions was organized under the 
general control of Emilio Nunez, with O'Brien as 
navigator. Credit for the numerous successful ex- 
peditions that followed lies in differing degrees with 
Nunez, Palma, Rubens, O'Brien, Hart, Cartaya, 
and others less well known in connection with the 
enterprises. But for the work they did, the risks 
they ran, Cuba's revolution must have failed. All 
of them risked jail sentences, and some of them 
risked their lives in ways perhaps even more danger- 
ous than fighting in the field. The success of the 
Bermuda expedition, carried out by what may be 
called direct evasion, quite seriously disturbed the 
authorities in this country, and excited them to 
greater precautions and wider activity. Whatever 
may have been their personal feelings in the matter, 
it was their duty to see that the laws of the countr, 
were enforced as far as they could be. The players 



FILIBUSTERING 193 

of the game for the Cubans met the new activities 
with complicated moves, many of which puzzled the 
watching officials, and landed a number of expedi- 
tions. Meanwhile, minor expeditions continued. The 
official report notes that on March 12, 1896, the 
Commodore, a 100-ton steamer, sailed from Charleston 
with men, arms, and ammunition, and landed them 
in Cuba. The Laurada, a 900-ton steamer, was 
reported by the Spanish Legation as having sailed 
on May 9, meeting three tugs and two lighters, 
off the coast, from which were transferred men and 
arms. The report states that "some of the men 
landed in Cuba, but the larger part of the arms and 
ammunition was thrown into the sea," which may or 
may not have been the case. On May 23, the tug 
Three Friends left Jacksonville, took on men and 
arms from two small vessels waiting outside, and 
landed all in Cuba. A month later, and again two 
months later, the Three Friends repeated the trip 
from Florida ports. On June 17, the Commodore 
made another successful trip from Charleston. 

While these and other minor expeditions were 
going on, the department of expeditions in New 
York was busy with a more extensive enterprise. 
An order was placed for 3000 rifles, 3,000,000 rounds 
of ammunition, 3 12-pound Hotchkiss field-guns and 
600 shells, machetes, and several tons of dynamite. 
The steamer Laurada was chartered, and the ocean- 
going tug Dauntless was bought in Brunswick, Georgia. 
A part of the purchased munitions was ordered to 



i 9 4 CUBA 0LD AND NEW 

New York, and the remainder, two car loads, shipped 
to Jacksonville by express. Ostensibly, the Laurada 
was to sail from Philadelphia to Jamaica for a cargo 
of fruit, a business in which she had at times en- 
gaged. Her actual instructions were to proceed to 
the vicinity of Barnegat, about forty miles from 
New York, and there, at sea, await orders. The 
arms and ammunition came down from Bridgeport 
on the regular boat from that city, and were left 
on board until night. There was no particular se- 
crecy about the shipment, and detedlives followed it. 
But when, at dark, the big gates of the dock were 
closed and locked and all seemed over for the day, 
the watchers assumed that nothing would be done 
until the next day, and went away. But, immediately 
after their departure, a big lighter slipped quietly 
into the dock across the wharf from the Bridgeport 
boat, a swarm of men appeared and, behind the 
closed gates, in the semi-darkness of the wharf, 
rushed boxes from steamer to lighter. The work was 
finished at midnight; a tug slipped up and attached 
a hawser to the lighter; and the cargo was on its 
way to Cuba. Johnny O'Brien was on the tug. 
The Laurada was met off Barnegat, as arranged, and 
the cargo and about fifty Cubans put on board of 
her. She was ordered to proceed slowly to Navassa 
Island where the Dauntless would meet her. General 
Nunez and O'Brien returned to New York on the 
tug, and while the detectives suspected that something 
had been done, they had no clue whatever to guide 



FILIBUSTERING 195 

them. Nunez and O'Brien started immediately for 
Charleston, with detectives at their heels. The 
Commodore, a tug then owned by the Cubans, lay 
in the harbor of that city, with a revenue cutter 
standing guard over her. She was ordered to get 
up steam and to go through all the motions of an 
immediate departure. But this was a ruse to draw 
attention away from the actual operations. Rubens, 
meanwhile, had gone to Jacksonville where he busied 
himself in convincing the authorities that the tug 
Three Friends was about to get away with an expedition. 
With one revenue cutter watching the Commodore 
in Charleston, the other cutter in the neighbor- 
hood was engaged in watching the Three Friends 
in Jacksonville, thus leaving a clear coast between 
those cities. In Charleston were about seventy-five 
Cubans waiting a chance to get to the island. 
O'Brien states that about twenty-five detectives 
were following their party. Late in the afternoon 
of August 13, while the smoke was pouring from 
the funnels of the Commodore, the regular south- 
bound train pulled out of the city. Its rear car was a 
reserved coach carrying the Cuban party, numbering 
a hundred or so. Detectives tried to enter, but were 
told that it was a private car, which it was. They 
went along in the forward cars. At ten o'clock that 
night, the train reached Callahan, where the Coast 
Line crossed the Seaboard Air Line. While the train 
was halted for the crossing, that rear car was quietly 
uncoupled. The train went on, detectives and all. 



196 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

The railroad arrangements were effected through the 
invaluable assistance of Mr. Alphonso Fritot, a local 
railway man whose authority enabled him to do with 
trains and train movement whatever he saw fit. He 
was himself of Cuban birth, though of French- 
American parentage, with ample reason, both personal 
and patriotic, for serving his Cuban friends, and his 
services were beyond measure. By his orders, when 
that train with its band of detectives had pulled away 
for Jacksonville, an engine picked up the detached 
car and ran it over to the Coast Line. A few miles 
away, it collected from a blind siding the two cars 
of arms and ammunition shipped some days before, 
from Bridgeport. A little further on, the line crossed 
the Satilla River. There lay the Dauntless, pur- 
chased by Rubens. Steam was up, and a quick 
job was made of transferring cargo and men from 
train to boat. Another tug brought a supply of 
coal, and soon after sunrise another expedition was 
on its way to Cuba. All this may be very immoral, 
but some who were on the expedition have told me 
that it was at least tremendously exciting. 

On August 17, the passengers and cargo were 
landed on the Cuban coast, near Nuevitas. The 
tug then proceeded to Navassa Island to meet the 
Laurada. Half of the men and half of the cargo 
of the steamer were transferred to the tug, and all 
were safely landed in a little cove a few miles west 
of Santiago. The landing was made in broad day- 
light. There were a number of Spanish naval vessels 



FILIBUSTERING i 97 

in Santiago harbor, and the city itself was filled with 
Spanish troops. The tug then returned for the re- 
mainder of the Laurada s passengers and cargo, all 
of which were landed a few days later at the place 
of the earlier landing. The Laurada went on to 
Jamaica and loaded with bananas, with which she 
sailed for Charleston. Arrests were made as a result 
of the expedition, and the owner of the ship, Mr. 
John D. Hart, was convicted and sentenced to sixteen 
months in the penitentiary. After serving four 
months of his term, a pardon was secured. He is 
said to be the only one, out of all those engaged in 
the many expeditions, who was actually convicted, 
and his only offence was the chartering of his ships 
to the Cuban revolutionists. The Dauntless was 
seized on her return to Jacksonville, but was soon 
released. An effort was made to indict O'Brien, 
but there was too much sympathy for the Cubans 
in Florida, where the effort was made. A number 
of minor expeditions were carried out in the next 
few months, by the Dauntless, the Three Friends, 
and the Commodore, the latter being wrecked in the 
last week in December. 

In February, 1897, another complicated manoeuvre 
was successfully executed. This involved the use 
of the Bermuda, the Laurada, and no less than seven 
smaller auxilliary vessels, tugs, lighters, and schooners. 
But the Laurada landed the cargo on the north- 
eastern coast of the island. As O'Brien tells the 
story, this successful expedition so angered Captain- 



i 9 8 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

General Weyler, then the ruler of the island, that 
he sent a message to the daring filibuster, through 
an American newspaper man, somewhat as follows: 
"Tell O'Brien that we will get him, sooner or later, 
and when we do, instead of having him shot along 
with his Cuban companions, I am going to have 
him ignominiously hanged from the flag-pole at 
Cabana, in full view of the city." Cabana is the 
old fortress across the bay, visible from nearly all 
parts of Havana. To this, O'Brien sent reply saying: 
"To show my contempt for you and all who take 
orders from you, I will make a landing within plain 
sight of Havana on my next trip to Cuba. I may 
even land an expedition inside of the harbor and take 
you away a prisoner. If we should capture you, 
which is much more likely than that you will ever 
capture me, I will have you chopped up into small 
pieces and fed to the fires of the Dauntless." A few 
months later, this little Irishman, whom Weyler 
denounced as a "bloodthirsty, dare-devil, ,, and who 
may have been a dare-devil but was not blood- 
thirsty, actually carried out a part of this seemingly 
reckless threat. He landed a cargo within a mile 
and a half of Morro Castle. 

By this time, vessels of the United States navy 
were employed, supplementing the work of the 
Revenue Service. This, of course, added both diffi- 
culty and danger to the work. In March and April, 
several expeditions were interrupted. For the Span- 
ish blockade of the Cuban coast, there was only 



FILIBUSTERING 199 

contempt. Captain O'Brien told a naval officer that 
if the navy and the revenue cutters would let him 
alone he would "advertise the time and place of 
departure, carry excursions on every trip, and guar- 
antee that every expedition would be landed on time. ,, 
In May, 1897, two carloads of arms and ammunition 
were shipped from New York to Jacksonville, but, 
by the authority of Mr. Fritot, they were quietly 
dropped from the train at a junction point, and sent 
to Wilmington, N. C. Their contents were trans- 
ferred to the tug Alexander Jones, and that boat 
proceeded nonchalantly down the river. Soon after- 
ward, an old schooner, the John D. Long, loaded 
with coal, followed the tug. Two revenue cutters 
were on hand, but there was nothing in the move- 
ments of these vessels to excite their interest. Off 
shore, the tug attached a towline to the schooner 
that was carrying its coal supply, its own bunkers 
being crammed with guns and cartridges. Off Palm 
Beach, General Nunez and some sixty Cubans were 
taken from a fishing boat, according to a prearranged 
plan. Two days later, at an agreed upon place, they 
were joined by the Dauntless which had slipped out 
of Jacksonville. The excursion was then complete. 
About half the cargo of the Jones was transferred to 
the Dauntless and was landed, May 21, a few miles 
east of Nuevitas. A second trip took the remainder 
of the cargo of the Jones and most of the Cuban 
passengers, and landed the lot under the very guns, 
such as they were, of Morro Castle, and within 



200 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

about three miles of the Palace of Captain-General 
Weyler. All that time, a force of insurgents under 
Rodriguez and Aurenguren was operating in that 
immediate vicinity, and was in great need of the 
supplies thus obtained. Some of the dynamite then 
landed was used the next day to blow up a train on 
which Weyler was supposed to be travelling, but in 
their haste the Cubans got one train ahead of that 
carrying the official party. The row that Weyler 
made about this landing will probably never be for- 
gotten by the subordinates who were the immediate 
victims of his rage. 

These are only a few of the many expeditions, 
successful and unsuccessful, made during those three 
eventful years. The Treasury Department report 
of February 28, 1898, gives seventeen successful 
operations. As a matter of fact, more than forty 
landings were made, although in a few cases a single 
expedition accounted for two, and in one or two 
instances for three landings. The experiences run 
through the entire gamut of human emotions, from 
absurdity to tragedy. The former is illustrated by the 
case of the Dauntless when she was held up by 
a vessel of the United States navy, and boarded by 
one of the officers of the ship. He examined the 
tug from stem to stern, sat on boxes of ammunition 
which seemed to him to be boxes of sardines, stumbled 
over packages of rifles from which butts and muzzles 
protruded; and failed utterly to find anything that 
could be regarded as contraband. The mere fact that 



FILIBUSTERING 201 

a vessel is engaged in transporting arms and ammuni- 
tion does not, of necessity, bring it within reach of 
the law. But that particular vessel was a good deal 
more than under suspicion; it was under the closest 
surveillance and open to the sharpest scrutiny. The 
temporary myopia of that particular lieutenant of 
the United States navy was no more than an outward 
and visible sign of a well-developed sense of humor, 
and an indication of at least a personal sympathy 
for the Cubans in their struggle. Tragedy is illus- 
trated by the disaster to the steamer Tillie. One 
day, late in January, 1898, this vessel, lying off the 
end of Long Island, took on one of the largest car- 
goes ever started on a filibustering expedition to 
Cuba. The cause is not known, but soon after 
starting a leak developed, beyond the capacity of 
the pumps. A heavy sea was running, and disaster 
was soon inevitable. The cargo was thrown over- 
board to lighten the ship and the vessel was headed 
for the shore on the chance that it might float until 
it could be beached. The water in the ship in- 
creased rapidly, and extinguished the fires under the 
boilers; the wind, blowing a high gale, swung into 
the northwest, thus driving the now helpless hulk 
out to sea. Huge combing waves swept the decks 
from end to end. O'Brien tells the story: "We 
looked in vain for another craft of any kind, and by 
the middle of the afternoon it seemed as though it 
was all up with us, for there was not much daylight 
left, and with her deck almost awash it was im- 



202 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

possible that the Tillie should keep afloat all night. 
The gale had swept us rapidly out to sea. The 
wind, which was filled with icy needles, had kicked 
up a wild cross-sea, and it was more comfortable to 
go down with the ship than even to think of trying 
to escape in the boats. " At last, when there seemed 
no longer any hope of rescue, the big five-masted 
schooner Governor Ames came plunging through the 
heaving seas, and, by masterly seamanship and good 
fortune, backed by the heroism of her commander 
and crew, succeeded in taking off all except four, 
who went down with the ship. But the work went 
on. There is not space here to tell of the several 
vessels whose names, through the engagement of the 
craft in these enterprises, became as familiar to 
newspaper readers as are the names of ocean liners 
today. A few months later, the United States 
Government sent its ships and its men to help those 
who, for three hard years, had struggled for national 
independence. 




XII 

THE STORY OF SUGAR 

(HEMICALLY, sugar is a compound belonging 
to the group of carbohydrates, or organic 
compounds of carbon with oxygen and hydro- 
gen. The group includes sugars, starches, gums, 
and celluloses. Sugar is a product of the vegetable 
kingdom, of plants, trees, root crops, etc. It is 
found in and is producible from many growths. As 
a laboratory process, it is obtainable from many 
sources, but, commercially, it is derived from only 
two, the sugar cane and the beet root. This state- 
ment, however, has a certain limitation in that it 
omits such produces as maple sugar, malt sugar, 
milk sugar, and others having commercial or chemical 
uses on a limited scale. But it is only with the crys- 
tallized sucrose, the familiar sugar of the market and 
the household, that we are dealing here. The output 
of the other sugars is measurable in hundreds or even 
thousands of pounds, but the output of the sugar 
of commerce is measured in millions of tons. Long 
experience proves that the desired substance is most 
readily, most abundantly, and most cheaply, obtained 
from the juices of the plant commonly known as 
sugar cane, and from the vegetable known as the 
sugar beet. 



204 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

The mechanical processes employed in producing 
sugar from cane and from beets, are practically the 
same. They are, broadly, the extraction or expression 
of the juices, their clarification and evaporation, and 
crystallization. These processes produce what is 
called "raw sugar," of varying percentages of sucrose 
content. Following them, there comes, for American 
uses, the process of refining, of removing the so- 
called impurities and foreign substances, and the 
final production of sugar in the shape of white crys- 
tals of different size, of sugar as powdered, cube, 
loaf, or other form. In the case of cane sugar, this 
is usually a secondary operation not conducted in the 
original mill. In the case of beet sugar, production 
is not infrequently a continuous operation in the 
same mill, from the beet root to the bagged or bar- 
relled sugar ready for the market. The final product 
from both cane and beet is practically the same. 
Pure sugar is pure sugar, whatever its source. In 
the commercial production, on large scale, there 
remains a small fraction of molasses or other harmless 
substances, indistinguishable by sight, taste, or smell. 
With that fraction removed and an absolute ioo 
per cent, secured, there would be no way by which 
the particular origin could be determined. For all 
practical purposes, the sugar of commerce, whether 
from cane or beet, is pure sugar. It is doubtful if 
an adulterated sugar can be found in the United 
States, notwithstanding the tales of the grocer who 
"sands" his sugar, and of the producer who adds 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 205 

terra alba or some other adulterant. In some coun- 
tries of Europe and elsewhere, there are sugars of 
inferior grades, of 85 or 90 or more degrees of sugar 
purity, but they are known as such and are sold at 
prices adjusted to their quality. Sugars of that class 
are obtainable in this country, but they are wanted 
almost exclusively for particular industrial purposes, 
for their glucose rather than their sucrose content. 
The American household, whether the home of the 
rich or of the poor, demands the well-known white 
sugar of established purity. 

There is still obtainable, in this country, but in 
limited quantity, a sugar very pleasantly remembered 
by many who have reached or passed middle age. 
It was variously known as "Muscovado" sugar, or 
as "plantation sugar," sometimes as "coffee" or 
"coffee crushed." It was a sugar somewhat sweeter 
to the taste than the white sugar, by reason of the 
presence of a percentage of molasses. It was a 
superior sugar for certain kitchen produces, for 
pies, certain kinds of cake, etc. It has many times 
been urged in Congress that the employment of what 
is known as the Dutch Standard, now abolished, 
excluded this sugar from our market. This is not at 
all the fact. The disappearance of the commodity 
is due solely to change in the mechanical methods 
of sugar production. It would be quite impossible 
to supply the world's sugar demand by the old 
"open kettle" process by which that sugar was made. 
The quality of sugar is easily tested by any one who 



206 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

has a spoonful of sugar and a glass of water. If 
the sugar dissolves entirely, and dissolves without 
discoloring the water, it may be accepted as a pure 
sugar. 

In his book on The World's Cane Sugar Industry — 
Past and Present, Mr. H. C. Prinsen Geerligs, a 
recognized expert authority on the subject, gives an 
elaborate history of the origin and development of 
the industry. His chapters on those branches are 
much too long for inclusion in full, but the following 
extracts tell the story in general outline. He states 
that the probability that sugar cane originally came 
from India is very strong, "as only the ancient 
literature of that country mentions sugar cane, while 
we know for certain that it was conveyed (from there) 
to other countries by travellers and sailors." The 
plant appears in Hindu mythology. A certain 
prince expressed a desire to be translated to heaven 
during his lifetime, but Indra, the monarch of the 
celestial regions, refused to admit him. A famous 
Hindu hermit, Vishva Mitra, prepared a temporary 
paradise for the prince, and for his use created the 
sugar cane as a heavenly food during his occupation 
of the place. The abode was afterward demolished, 
but the delectable plant, and a few other luxuries, 
were "spread all over the land of mortals as a perma- 
nent memorial of Vishva Mitra's miraculous deeds." 
In the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) 
there appear tales of "a reed growing in India which 
produced honey without the aid of bees." 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 207 

The early references are to sugar cane and not to 
cane sugar. While there may have been earlier ex- 
periences, the history of sugar, as such, seems to 
begin in the 7th century (a.d.). There is a story 
that the Chinese Emperor, Tai Tsung (627-650 a.d.) 
sent people to Behar, in India, to learn the art of 
sugar manufacture. The Arabs and the Egyptians 
soon learned how to purify sugar by re-crystalliza- 
tion, and to manufacture sweetmeats from the puri- 
fied sugar. Marco Polo, who visited China during 
the last quarter of the 13th Century, refers to "a 
great many sugar factories in South China, where 
sugar could be freely bought at low prices." The 
Mohammedan records of that period also show the 
manufacture, in India, of crystallized sugar and 
candy. The area of production at that time covered, 
generally, the entire Mediterranean coast. The cru- 
saders found extensive plantations in Tripoli, Mesopo- 
tamia, Palestine, Syria, and elsewhere. The plant 
is said to have been introduced in Spain as early 
as the year 755. Its cultivation is said to have been 
a flourishing industry there in the year 11 50. 
Through China, it was early extended to Japan, 
Formosa, and the Philippines. The records of the 
14th Century show the production and distribution 
of sugar as an important commercial enterprise in 
the Mediterranean region. The Portuguese discov- 
eries of the 15th Century carried the plant to the 
Azores, the Cape Verde islands, and to possessions in 
the Gulf of Guinea. The Spaniards took it to the 



2 o8 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

Western Hemisphere in the early years of the 16th 
Century. The Portuguese took it to Brazil at about 
the same time. While a Chinese traveller, visiting 
Java in 424, reports the cultivation of sugar cane, 
it was not until more than twelve hundred years 
later that the island, now an important source of 
sugar supply, began the production of sugar as a 
commercial enterprise. By the end of the 18th 
Century there was what might be called a sugar 
belt, girdling the globe and extending, roughly, 
from thirty-five degrees north of the equator to 
thirty-five degrees south of that line. It was then 
a product of many of the countries within those 
limits. The supply of that time was obtained entirely 
from cane. 

The early years of the 19th Century brought a new 
experience in the sugar business. That was the 
production of sugar, in commercial quantities, from 
beets. From that time until now, the commodity 
has been a political shuttlecock, the object of govern- 
ment bounties and the subject of taxation. In 
1747, Herr Marggraf, of the Academy of Sciences, 
in Berlin, discovered the existence of crystallizable 
sugar in the juice of the beet and other roots. No 
practical use was made of the discovery until 1801 
when a factory was established near Breslau, in Silesia. 
The European beet-sugar industry, that has since 
attained enormous proportions, had its actual be- 
ginning in the early years of the 19th Century. It 
was a result of the Napoleonic wars of that period. 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 209 

When the wars were ended, and the blockades raised, 
the industry was continued in France by the aid of 
premiums, differentials, and practically prohibitory 
tariffs. The activities in other European countries 
under similar conditions of governmental aid, came 
a little later. The total world supply of sugar, 
including cane and beet, less than 1,500,000 tons, 
even as recently as 1850, seems small in comparison 
with the world's requirement of about twelve times 
that quantity at the present time. The output of 
beet sugar was then only about 200,000 tons, as 
compared with a present production of approximately 
8,000,000 tons. But sugar was then a costly luxury 
while it is today a cheaply supplied household neces- 
sity. As recently as 1870, the wholesale price of 
granulated sugar in New York was thirteen and a 
half cents a pound, or about three times the present 
average. 

Cane sugar is produced in large or small quantities 
in some fifty different countries and islands. In 
many, the output is only for domestic consumption, 
or in quantity too small to warrant inclusion in the 
list of sources of commercial supply. Sixteen coun- 
tries are included in the list of beet-sugar producers. 
Of these, all are in Europe with the exception of 
the United States and Canada. Only two countries, 
the United States and Spain, produce sugar from 
both beet and cane. British India leads in the pro- 
duction of cane sugar, with Cuba a close second on 
the list, and Java the third. In their total, these 



210 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

three countries supply about two-thirds of the world's 
total output of cane sugar. Hawaii and Porto Rico, 
in that order, stand next on the list of producers. 
Under normal conditions, Germany leads in beet- 
sugar production, with Russia second, Austria-Hun- 
gary third, France fourth, and the United States 
fifth, with Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, 
and Denmark following. The island of Cuba is 
the most important source of commercial cane sugar. 
Immediately before the revolution of 1895, lts output 
a little exceeded a million tons. The derangement 
caused by that experience covered several years, 
and it was not until 1903 that so large a crop was 
again made. Since that time, the output has more 
than doubled. The increase is attributable to the 
large increase in demand in the United States, and 
to the advantage given Cuban sugar in this market 
by the reciprocity treaty of 1903. Practically all 
of Cuba's export product is in the class commonly 
known as 96 degree centrifugals, that is, raw sugar 
of 96 per cent, or thereabout, of sugar content. 
Under normal conditions, nearly all of Cuba's ship- 
ments are to the United States. The sugar industry 
was introduced in Cuba very soon after the permanent 
settlement of the island, by Spaniards, in the early 
years of the 16th Century, but it was not until two 
hundred and fifty years later that Spain's restrictive 
and oppressive colonial policy made even its fair 
extension possible. In 1760, two and a half centuries 
after the first settlement, the sugar exports of the 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 211 

island were a little less than 4,400 tons. In 1790, 
they were a little more than 14,000 tons. Some re- 
laxation of the laws regulating production and exporta- 
tion, made possible an increase to 41,000 tons in 
1802, and further relaxation made possible, in 1850, 
an output somewhat unreliably reported as 223,000 
tons. It reached 632,000 tons in 1890, and the 
stimulus of the "free sugar" schedule of the United 
States brought it, in the next few years, to more than 
a million tons. Production in recent years has 
averaged about 2,500,000 tons. 

In forty years, only a little more than a single 
generation, the world's supply of sugar has been 
multiplied by five, from a little more than three 
million tons a year to nearly eighteen million tons. 
The total world output in 1875 would not today sup- 
ply the demand of the United States alone. This 
increase in production has been made possible by 
improvements in the methods and the machinery 
of manufacture. Until quite recently, primitive meth- 
ods were employed, much like those used in the 
production of maple sugar on the farm, although on 
larger scale. More attention has been paid to vari- 
eties of the plant and some, though no very great, 
change has been made in field processes. In Cuba, 
the cane is planted in vast areas, in thousands of 
acres. Some of the estates plant and cultivate their 
own fields, and grind the cane in their own mills. 
Others, known as "colonos," are planters only, the 
crop being sold to the mills commonly called " cen- 



212 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

trales." In its general appearance, a field of sugar- 
cane looks quite like a field of corn, but the method 
of cultivation is somewhat different. The slow 
oxen are still commonly used for plowing and for 
carts. This is not because of any lack of progressive 
spirit, but because experience has shown that, under 
all conditions of the industry, the ox makes the 
most satisfactory and economical motive power, 
notwithstanding his lack of pace. 

The Encyclopaedia describes sugar-cane as "a 
member of the grass family, known botanically as 
Saccharum officinarum. It is a tall, perennial grass- 
like plant, giving off numerous erecl: stems 6 to 12 
feet or more in height, from a thick solid jointed 
root-stalk." The ground is plowed in rows in which, 
not seed, but a stalk of cane is lightly buried. The 
rootlets and the new cane spring from the joints 
of the planted stalk which is laid flat and lengthwise 
of the row. It takes from a year to a year and a half 
for the stalk to mature sufficiently for cutting and 
grinding. Several cuttings, and sometimes many, 
are made from a single planting. There are tales 
of fields on which cane has grown for forty years 
without re-planting. A few years ago, ten or fifteen 
years was not an unusual period. The present 
tendency is toward more frequent planting, but not 
annual, as offering a better chance for stronger cane 
with a larger sugar content. The whole process of 
cultivation and field treatment is hard, heavy work, 
most of it very hard work. Probably the hardest and 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 213 

heaviest is the cutting. This is done with a long, 
heavy-bladed knife, the machete. The stalk, from an 
inch to two inches in thickness, is chopped down near 
the root, the heavy knife swung with cut after cut, 
under a burning sun. Only the strongest can stand 
it, a wearying, back-breaking task. After cutting, 
the stalk is trimmed and loaded on carts to be hauled, 
according to distance, either directly to the mill or 
to the railway running thereto. The large estates 
have their own railway systems running to all the 
fields of the plantation. These are private lines 
operated only for economy in cane transportation. 
Most of the crushing mills measure their daily con- 
sumption of cane in thousands of tons. While 
every precaution is taken, there are occasional fires. 
In planting, wide "fire lanes," or uncultivated strips 
are left to prevent the spread of fire if it occurs. 

Mill installations vary on the different plantations, 
but the general principle of operation is the same on 
all. The first process is the extraction of the juice 
that carries the sugar. It is probable that this was 
originally done in hand mortars. Next came the 
passing of the cane between wooden rollers turned 
by ox power, the rollers standing upright and con- 
nected with a projecting shaft or beam to the outer 
end of which the animal was attached, to plod 
around and around while the cane was fed between 
the rollers. The present system is merely an expan- 
sion of that old principle. At the mill, the stalks 
are dumped, by carload or by cartload, into a chan- 



2i 4 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

nel through which they are mechanically conveyed 
to huge rollers, placed horizontally, arranged in pairs 
or in sets of three, and slowly turned by powerful 
engines. The larger mills have a series of these rollers, 
two, three, or even four sets, the stalks passing from 
one to another for the expression of every possible 
drop of the juice, up to the point where the cost' of 
juice extraction exceeds the value of the juice obtained. 
The expressed juices are collected in troughs through 
which they are run to the next operation. The 
crushed stalks, then known as bagasse, are conveyed 
to the huge boilers where they are used as fuel for 
the generation of the steam required in the various 
operations, from the feeding and the turning of the 
rollers, to the device from which the final product, 
the crystallized sugar, is poured into bags ready for 
shipment. All this is a seasonal enterprise. The 
cane grows throughout the year, but it begins to 
ripen in December. Then the mills start up and run 
until the rains of the next May or June suspend 
further operations. It then becomes impossible to 
haul the cane over the heavily mired roads from the 
muddy fields. Usually, only a few mills begin their 
work in December, and early June usually sees most 
of them shut down. The beginning of the rainy 
season is not uniform, and there are mills in eastern 
Cuba that sometimes run into July and even into 
August. But the general grinding season may be 
given as of about five months duration, and busy 
months they are. The work goes on night and day. 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 215 

The next step is the treatment of the juices ex- 
pressed by the rollers and collected in the troughs 
that carry it onward. The operations are highly 
technical, and different methods are employed in 
different mills. The first operation is one of puri- 
fication. The juice, as it comes from the rollers, 
carries such materials as glucose, salts, organic acids, 
and other impurities, that must be removed. For 
this, lime is the principal agent. The details of it 
all would be as tedious here as they are complicated 
in the mill. The percentages of the different im- 
purities vary with the variation of the soils in which 
the cane is grown. The next step, following clarifi- 
cation, is evaporation, the boiling out of a large 
percentage of the water carried in the juice. For 
this purpose, a vacuum system is used, making pos- 
sible a more rapid evaporation with a smaller ex- 
penditure of fuel. These two operations, clarification 
and evaporation by the use of the vacuum, are merely 
improved methods for doing, on a large scale, what 
was formerly done by boiling in pans or kettles, on 
a small scale. That method is still used in many 
parts of the world, and even in the United States, 
in a small way. For special reasons, it is still used 
on some of the Louisiana plantations; it is common 
in the farm production of sorghum molasses in the 
South; and in the manufacture of maple sugar in 
the North. In those places, the juices are boiled 
in open pans or kettles, the impurities skimmed off 
as they rise, and the boiling, for evaporation, is con- 



2 i6 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

tinued until a proper consistency is reached, for mo- 
lasses in the case of sorghum and for crystallization 
in the case of plantation and maple sugars. There 
is an old story of an erratic New England trader, in 
Newburyport, who called himself Lord Timothy 
Dexter. In one of his shipments to the West Indies, 
a hundred and fifty years ago, this picturesque in- 
dividual included a consignment of "warming pans," 
shallow metal basins with a cover and a long wooden 
handle, used for warming beds on cold winter nights. 
The basin was filled with coals from the fireplace, 
and then moved about between the sheets to take 
off the chill. He was not a little ridiculed by his 
acquaintances for sending such merchandise where 
it could not possibly be needed, but it is said that 
he made considerable money out of his enterprise. 
With the covers removed, the long-handled, shallow 
basins proved admirably adapted for use in skimming 
the sugar in the boiling-pans. But the old-fashioned 
method would be impossible today. 

The different operations are too complicated and 
too technical for more than a reference to the purpose 
of the successive processes. Clarification and evap- 
oration having been completed, the next step is 
crystallization, also a complicated operation. When 
this is done, there remains a dark brown mass con- 
sisting of sugar crystals and molasses, and the next 
step is the removal of all except a small percentage 
of the molasses. This is accomplished by what are 
called the centrifugals, deep bowls with perforated 



THE STORY OF SUGAR 217 

walls, whirled at two or three thousand revolutions 
a minute. This expels the greater part of the molas- 
ses, and leaves a mass of yellow-brown crystals, the 
coloring being due to the molasses remaining. This 
is the raw sugar of commerce. Most of Cuba's 
raw product is classed as "96 degree centrifugals/' 
that is, the raw sugar, as it comes from the centri- 
fugal machines and is bagged for shipment, is of 
96 degrees of sugar purity. This is shipped to 
market, usually in full cargo lots. There it goes to 
the refineries, where it is melted, clarified, evaporated, 
and crystallized. This second clarification removes 
practically everything except the pure crystallized 
sugar of the market and the table. It is then an 
article of daily use in every household, and a subject 
of everlasting debate in Congress. 



XIII 

VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 

HE Encyclopaedia Britannica states that "al- 
though the fadt has been controverted, there 
j± cannot be a doubt that the knowledge of 
tobacco and its uses came to the rest of the world 
from America. As the continent was opened up and 
explored, it became evident that the consumption 
of tobacco, especially by smoking, was a universal 
and immemorial usage, in many cases bound up with 
the most significant and solemn tribal ceremonials. " 
The name "tobacco" was originally the name of 
the appliance in which it was smoked and not of 
the plant itself, just as the term "chowder" comes 
from the vessel (chaudiere) in which the compound 
was prepared. The tobacco plant was first taken 
to Europe in 1558, by Francisco Fernandez, a physi- 
cian who had been sent to Mexico by Philip II to 
investigate the products of that country. The Eng- 
lish, however, appear to have been the first Euro- 
peans to adopt the smoking habit, and Sir Walter 
Raleigh was notable for his indulgence in the weed. 
He is said to have called for a solacing pipe just before 
his execution. Very soon after their arrival, in 1607, 
the Virginia settlers engaged in the cultivation of 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 219 

tobacco, and it soon became the most important 
commercial produdl of the colony. Smoking, as 
practiced in this country, appears to have been 
largely, and perhaps only, by means of pipes generally 
similar to those now in use. The contents of ancient 
Indian mounds, or tumuli, opened in Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, and Iowa, show the use of pipes by the 
aborigines probably centuries before the discoveries 
by Columbus. Many were elaborately carved in 
porphyry or some other hard stone, while others 
were made of baked clay. Others, many of them 
also elaborately carved and ornamented, have been 
found in Mexico. Roman antiquities show many 
pipes, but they do not show the use of tobacco. It 
is assumed that they were used for burning incense, 
or for smoking some aromatic herb or hemp. 

The first knowledge of the use of the plant in 
Cuba was in November, 1492, when Columbus, 
on landing near Nuevitas, sent his messengers inland 
to greet the supposed ruler of a supposed great 
Asiatic empire. Washington Irving thus reports 
the story as it was told by Navarete, the Spanish 
historian. Referring to those messengers, he says: 
"They beheld several of the natives going about with 
firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs 
which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, 
put the other in their mouths, and continued exhaling 
and puffing out the smoke. A roll of this kind they 
called a tobacco, a name since transferred to the plant 
of which the rolls were made. The Spaniards, al- 



22o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

though prepared to meet with wonders, were struck 
with astonishment at this singular and apparently 
nauseous indulgence." A few years later, a different 
method was reported, by Columbus, as employed 
in Hispaniola. This consisted of inhaling the fumes 
of the leaf through a Y-shaped device applied to the 
nostrils. This operation is said to have produced 
intoxication and stupefaction, which appears to have 
been the desired result. The old name still continues 
in Cuba, and if a smoker wants a cigar, he will get 
it by calling for a " tobacco. " The production of 
the plant is, next to sugar, Cuba's most important 
commercial industry. Its early history is only im- 
perfectly known. There was probably very little 
commercial production during the 16th Century, for 
the reason that there was then no demand for it. 
The demand came in the first half of the 17th Cen- 
tury, and by the middle of that period tobacco was 
known and used in practically all civilized countries. 
The demand for it spread very rapidly, in spite of 
papal fulminations and penal enactments. For a 
time, in Russia, the noses of smokers were cut off. 
The early part of the 18th Century saw Cuba 
actively engaged in production and shipment. In 
1717, Cuba's tobacco was made a monopoly of the 
Spanish Government. Under that system, production 
was regulated and prices were fixed by the agents 
of the government, in utter disregard of the welfare 
of the producers. As a result, several serious riots 
occurred. In 1723, a large number of planters refused 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 221 

to accept the terms offered by the officials, and de- 
stroyed the crops of those who did accept, a condition 
repeated in the State of Kentucky a few years ago, 
the only difference being that in the Cuban experience 
the monopolist was the Government, and in Ken- 
tucky it was a corporation. A few years later, in 
1734, the Cuban monopoly was sold to Don Jose 
Tallapiedra who contracted to ship to Spain, annually, 
three million pounds of tobacco. The contract was 
afterward given to another, but control was resumed 
by the Crown, in 1760. Finally, in 18 17, cultivation 
and trade were declared to be free, subject only to 
taxation. 

In time, it became known that the choicest tobacco 
in the market came from the western end of Cuba, 
from the Province of Pinar del Rio. It was given 
a distinct name, Vuelta Abajo> a term variously trans- 
lated but referring to the downward bend of the 
section of the island in which that grade is produced. 
Here is grown a tobacco that, thus far, has been 
impossible of production elsewhere. Many experi- 
ments have been tried, in Cuba and in other coun- 
tries. Soils have been analyzed by chemists; seeds 
from the Vuelta Abajo have been planted; and 
localities have been sought where climatic conditions 
corresponded. No success has been attained. Nor 
is the crop of that region produced on an extensive 
scale, that is, the choicer leaf. Not all of the tobacco 
is of the finest grade, although most of it is of high 
quality. There are what may be called "patches" 



222 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

of ground, known to the experts, on which the best is 
produced, for reasons not yet clearly determined. 
The fact is well known, but the causes are somewhat 
mysterious. Nor does the plant of this region appear 
to be susceptible of improvement through any mod- 
ern, scientific systems of cultivation. The quality 
deteriorates rather than improves as a result of arti- 
ficial fertilizers. The people of the region, cultivating 
this special product through generation after genera- 
tion, seem to have developed a peculiar instinct 
for its treatment. It is not impossible that a time 
may come when scientific soil selection, seed selection, 
special cultivation, irrigation, and other systems, 
singly or in combination, will make possible the 
production of a standardized high-grade leaf in much 
greater quantity than heretofore, but it seems little 
probable that anything so produced will excel or 
even equal the best produced by these expert vegueros 
by their indefinable but thorough knowledge of the 
minutest peculiarities of this peculiar plant. Thus 
far, it has not even been possible to produce it else- 
where in the island. It has been tried outside of the 
fairly defined area of its production, tried by men who 
knew it thoroughly within that area, tried from the 
same seed, from soils that seem quite the same. But 
all failed. Science may some day definitely locate 
the reasons, just as it may find the reason for de- 
terioration in the quality of Cuban tobacco eastward 
from that area. The tobacco of Havana Province 
is excellent, but inferior to that of Pinar del Rio. 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 223 

The growth of Santa Clara Province is of good quality, 
but inferior to that of Havana Province, while the 
tobacco of eastern Cuba is little short of an offence 
to a discriminating taste. 

Tobacco is grown from seeds, planted in specially- 
prepared seed beds. Seeding is begun in the early- 
autumn. When the young plant has attained a 
proper height, about eight or ten inches, it is removed 
to, and planted in, the field of its final growth. This 
preliminary process demands skill, knowledge, and 
careful attention equal, perhaps, to the requirements 
of the later stages. Experiments have been made 
with mechanical appliances, but most of the work is 
still done by hand, particularly in the area producing 
the better qualities of leaf. From the time of trans- 
planting, it is watched with the greatest care. A 
constant battle is waged with weeds and insect life, 
and water must be brought if the season is too dry. 
If rains are excessive, as they sometimes are, the 
crop may be partly or wholly destroyed, as it was in 
the autumn of 1914. The plant matures in January, 
after four months of constant watchfulness and labor, 
in cultivation, pruning, » and protection from worms 
and insects. When the leaves are properly ripened, 
the stalks are cut in sections, two leaves to a section. 
These are hung on poles and taken to the drying 
sheds where they are suspended for three or more 
weeks. The time of this process, and its results, 
depend upon moisture, temperature, and treatment. 
All this is again an operation demanding expert 



224 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

knowledge and constant care. When properly cured, 
the leaves are packed in bales of about no pounds 
each, and are then ready for the market. Because 
of the varying conditions under which the leaf is 
produced, from year to year, it is somewhat difficult 
to determine with any accuracy the increase in the 
industry. Broadly, the output appears to have been 
practically doubled in the last twenty years, a growth 
attributed to the new economic conditions, to the 
extension of transportation facilities that have made 
possible the opening of new areas to cultivation, and 
to the investment of capital, largely American capital. 
The exports show, generally, a material increase in 
sales of leaf tobacco and some decline in sales of cigars. 
The principal market for the leaf, for about 85 per 
cent of it, is in the United States where it is made, 
with more or less honesty, into "all-Havana" cigars. 
This country, however, takes only about a third of 
Cuba's cigar output. The United Kingdom takes 
about as much of that product as we do, and Ger- 
many, in normal times, takes about half as much. 
The remainder is widely scattered, and genuine 
, imported Havana cigars are obtainable in all countries 
throughout the world. The total value of Cuba's 
yearly tobacco crop is from #40,000,000 to #50,000,- 
000, including domestic consumption and foreign 
trade. 

The story that all Cubans, men and women alike, 
are habitual and constant smokers, is not and never 
was true. Whatever it may have been in the past, 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 225 

I am inclined to think that smoking by women is 
more common in this country than it is in Cuba, 
particularly among the middle and upper social 
classes. I have seen many American and English 
women smoke in public, but never a Cuban woman. 
Nor is smoking by men without its exceptions. I 
doubt if the percentage of non-smokers in this coun- 
try is any greater than it is in the island. There 
are many Cubans who do smoke, just as there are 
many Americans, Englishmen, Germans, and Rus- 
sians. Those who watch on the street for a respectable 
Cuban woman with a cigar in her mouth, or even a 
cigarette, will be disappointed. Cuba's tobacco is 
known by the name of the region in which it is 
produced; the Vuelta Abajo of Pinar del Rio; the 
Partidos of Havana Province; the Manicaragua and 
the Remedios of Santa Clara; and the May art of 
Oriente. Until quite recently, when American organ- 
ized capital secured control of many of the leading 
factories in Cuba, it was possible to identify a cigar, 
in size and shape, by some commonly employed 
name, such as perfeclos, conchas, panetelas, imperiales, 
londreSy etc. The old names still appear, but to 
them there has been added an almost interminable 
list in which the old distinction is almost lost. Lost, 
too, or submerged, are many of the old well-known 
names of manufacturers, names that were a guarantee 
of quality. There were also names for different 
qualities, almost invariably reliable, and for color 
that was supposed to mark the strength of the cigar. 



226 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

An accomplished smoker may still follow the old 
system and call for a cigar to his liking, by the use 
of the old terms and names made familiar by years 
of experience, but the general run of smokers can 
only select, from a hundred or more boxes bearing 
names and words that are unfamiliar or unknown, 
a cigar that he thinks looks like one that he wants. 
It may be a " superb a" an "imperial" a "Wilson's 
Cabinet," or a "Havana Kid." 

There is a wide difference in the dates given as the 
time of the introduction of the coffee plant in Cuba. 
One writer gives the year 1720, another gives 1748, 
and still another gives 1769. Others give various 
years near the end of the century. It was doubtless 
a minor industry for fifty years or more before that 
time, but it was given an impetus and began to 
assume commercial proportions during the closing 
years of the 18th Century. During that century, 
the industry was somewhat extensively carried on in 
the neighboring island of Santo Domingo. In 1790, 
a revolution broke out in that island, including Haiti, 
and lasted, with more or less violent activity, for 
nearly ten years. One result was the emigration 
to Cuba of a considerable number of refugees, many 
of them French. They settled in eastern Cuba, 
where conditions for coffee-growing are highly favor- 
able. Knowing that industry from their experience 
with it in the adjacent island, these people naturally 
took it up in their new home. The cultivation of 
coffee in Cuba, prior to that time, was largely in the 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 1^27 

neighborhood of Havana, the region then of the 
greater settlement and development. For the next 
forty years or so, the industry developed and coffee 
assumed a considerable importance as an export 
commodity, in addition to the domestic supply. In 
1840, there were more than two thousand coffee 
plantations, large and small, producing more than 
seventy million pounds of coffee, the greater part of 
which was exported. From about the middle of the 
century, the industry declined, in part because of 
lower prices due to increase in the world-supply 
through increased production in other countries, and 
in part, because of the larger chance of profit in the 
growing of sugar, an industry then showing an in- 
creased importance. Coffee culture has never been 
entirely suspended in the island, and efforts are made 
from time to time to revive it, but for many 
years Cuba has imported most of its coffee supply, 
the larger share being purchased from Porto Rico. 
It would be easily possible for Cuba to produce its 
entire requirement. There are few more beautiful 
sights in all the world than a field of coffee trees in 
blossom. One writer has likened it to "millions of 
snow drops scattered over a sea of green.'* They 
blossom, in Cuba, about the end of February or 
early in March, the fruit season and picking coming 
in the autumn. Coffee culture is an industry re- 
quiring great care and some knowledge, and the prep- 
aration of the berry for the market involves no less 
of care and knowledge. The quality of the Cuban 



22S CUBA OLD AND NEW 

berry is of the best. It is the misfortune of the 
people of the United States that very few of them 
really know anything about coffee and its qualities, 
notwithstanding the fadt that they consume about 
a billion pounds a year, all except a small per- 
centage of it being coffee of really inferior quality. 
But coffee, like cigars, pickles, or music, is largely a 
matter of individual preference. 

Cuba produces a variety of vegetables, chiefly 
for domestic consumption, and many fruits, some of 
which are exported. There is also a limited pro- 
duction of grains. Among the tubers produced are 
sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yams, the arum and 
the yucca. From the latter is made starch and the 
cassava bread. The legumes are represented by 
varieties of beans and peas. The most extensively 
used food of the island people is rice, only a little 
of which is locally grown. The imports are valued 
at five or six million dollars yearly. Corn is grown 
in some quantity, but nearly two million dollars 
worth is imported yearly from the United States. 
There are fruits of many kinds. The banana is the 
most important of the group, and is grown through- 
out the island. It appears on the table of all, rich 
and poor, sometimes au nature! but more frequently 
cooked. There are many varieties, some of which 
are exported while others are practically unknown 
here. The Cuban mango is not of the best, but they 
are locally consumed by the million. Only a few 
of the best are produced and those command a 




PALM-THATCHED ROOFS 
A P E AS ANT'S HOME 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 229 

fancy price even when they are obtainable. The 
aguacate, or alligator pear, is produced in abundance. 
Cocoanuts are a product largely of the eastern end 
of the island, although produced in fair supply 
elsewhere. The trees are victims of a disastrous bud 
disease that has attacked them in recent years causing 
heavy loss to growers. 

Since the American occupation, considerable atten- 
tion has been given, mainly by Americans, to the 
production of oranges, grape-fruit, and pineapples, 
in which a considerable industry has been developed. 
There are several varieties. The guava of Cuba 
makes a jelly that is superior to that produced from 
the fruit in any other land of my experience. If 
there is a better guava jelly produced anywhere, I 
should be pleased to sample it, more pleased to obtain 
a supply. But there is a difference in the product 
even there, just as there is a difference in currant or 
grape jelly produced here. It depends a good deal 
on the maker. Some of the best of my experience 
is made in the neighborhood of Santa Clara, but I 
have tried no Cuban jalea de guayaba that was 
not better than any I have had in the Far East 
or elsewhere. The guanabana is eaten in its natural 
state, but serves its best purpose as a flavor for ices 
or cooling drinks. There are a number of others, 
like the anon, the zapote, the granadilla, the mamey, 
etc., with which visitors may experiment or not as 
they see fit. Some like some of them and others 
like none of them. An excellent grade of cacao, 



2 3 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

the basis of chocolate and cocoa, is produced in some- 
what limited quantity. The industry could easily 
be extended. In fact, there are many soil produces 
not now grown in the island but which might be 
grown there, and many others now produced on small 
scale that could be produced in important quantities. 
That they are not now so produced is due to lack of 
both labor and capital. The industries of Cuba are, 
and always have been, specialized. Sugar, tobacco, 
and at a time coffee, have absorbed the capital and 
have afforded occupation for the greater number of 
the island people. The lack of transportation facil- 
ities in earlier years, and the system of land tenure, 
have made difficult if not impossible the establish- 
ment of any large number of independent small 
farmers. The day laborers in the tobacco fields and 
on sugar plantations have been unable to save enough 
money to buy a little farm and equip it even if the 
land could be purchased at all. Yet only a very 
small percentage of the area is actually under culti- 
vation. Cuba now imports nearly $40,000,000 worth 
of alimentary substances, altogether too much for 
a country of its productive possibilities. It is true 
that a part of this, such as wheat flour for instance, 
cannot be produced on the island successfully, and 
that other commodities, such as rice, hog produces, 
and some other articles, can be imported more 
cheaply than they can be produced locally. But 
the imports of foodstuffs are undoubtedly excessive, 
although there are good reasons for the present 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 231 

situation. It is a matter that will find adjustment 
in time. 

The island has mineral resources of considerable 
value, although the number of products is limited. 
The Spanish discoverers did not find the precious 
metals for which they were seeking, and while gold 
has since been found, it has never appeared in 
quantity sufficient to warrant its exploitation. Silver 
discoveries have been reported, but not in quantity 
to pay for its extraction. Nothing is ever certain 
in those industries, but it is quite safe to assume 
that Cuba is not a land of precious metals. Copper 
was discovered in eastern Cuba as early as about 
the year 1530, and the mines near Santiago were 
operated as a Government monopoly for some two 
hundred years, when they were abandoned. They 
were idle for about a hundred years when, in 1830, 
an English company with a capital of #2,400,000 
reopened them. It is officially reported that in the 
next forty years copper of a value of more than 
#50,000,000 was extracted and shipped. During 
that time, the mines were among the most notable 
in the world. In the meantime, ownership was trans- 
ferred to a Spanish corporation organized in Havana. 
This concern became involved in litigation with the 
railway concerning freight charges, and this experi- 
ence was followed by the Ten Years' War, in the 
early course of which the plant was destroyed and 
the mines flooded. In 1902, an American company 
was organized. It acquired practically all the copper 



232 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

property in the Cobre field and began operations on 
an extensive and expensive scale. A huge sum was 
spent in pumping thousands of tons of water from a 
depth of hundreds of feet, in new equipment for the 
mining operations, and in the construction of a 
smelter. The best that can be done is to hope that 
the investors will some day get their money back. 
Without any doubt, there is a large amount of copper 
there, and more in other parts of Oriente. So is 
there copper in Camaguey, Santa Clara, and Matan- 
zas provinces. There are holes in the ground near 
the city of Camaguey that indicate profitable opera- 
tions in earlier years. The metal is spread over a 
wide area in Pinar del Rio, and venturous spirits have 
spent many good Spanish pesos and still better Ameri- 
can dollars in efforts to locate deposits big enough to 
pay for its excavation. Some of that class are at 
it even now, and one concern is reported as doing a 
profitable business. 

The bitumens are represented in the island by 
asphalt, a low-grade coal, and seepages of petroleum. 
At least, several writers tell of coal in the vicinity 
of Havana, but the substance is probably only a 
particularly hard asphaltum. The only real coal 
property of which I have any knowledge is a quite 
recent discovery. The story was told me by the 
man whose money was sought to develop it. It was, 
by the way, an anthracite property. In response 
to an urgent invitation from a presumably reliable 
acquaintance, my friend took his car and journeyed 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 233 

westward into Pinar del Rio, through a charming 
country that he and I have many times enjoyed 
together. He picked up his coal-discovering friend 
in the city of Pinar del Rio, and proceeded into the 
country to inspect the coal-vein. At a number of 
points immediately alongside the highway, his com- 
panion alighted to scrape away a little of the surface 
of the earth and to return with a little lump of really 
high-grade anthracite. Such a substance had no 
proper business there, did not belong there geologically 
or otherwise. The explanation soon dawned upon 
my friend. They were following the line of an 
abandoned narrow-guage railway, abandoned twenty 
years ago, along which had been dumped, at in- 
tervals, little piles of perfectly good anthracite, 
imported from Pennsylvania, for use by the portable 
engine used in the construction of the road. My 
friend declares that he is entirely ready at any time 
to swear that there are deposits of anthracite in 
Cuba. A very good quality of asphalt is obtained 
in different parts of the island, and considerable 
quantities have been shipped to the United States. 
Signs of petroleum deposits have been strong enough 
to induce investigation and expenditure. An Ameri- 
can company is now at work drilling in Matanzas 
Province. The most extensive and promising mineral 
industry is iron, especially in eastern Cuba. Millions 
of tons of ore have been taken from the mountains 
along the shore between Santiago and Guantanamo, 
and the supply appears to be inexhaustible. The 



234 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

product is shipped to the United States, to a value 
of several millions of dollars yearly. A few years 
ago, other and apparently more extensive deposits 
were discovered in the northern section of Oriente. 
The field bought by the Pennsylvania Steel Company 
is estimated to contain 600,000,000 tons of ore. The 
Bethlehem Steel Company is the owner of another 
vast tract:. The quality of these ores is excellent. 
In Oriente Province also are deposits of manganese 
of which considerable shipments have been made. 

It is not possible in so brief a survey of Cuba's 
resources and industries to include all its present ac- 
tivities, to say nothing of its future possibilities. At 
the present time, the island is practically an extensive 
but only partly cultivated farm, producing mainly 
sugar and tobacco, with fruits and vegetables as a 
side line. The metal deposits supplement this, with 
promise of becoming increasingly valuable. The 
forest resources, commercially, are not great, although 
there are, and will continue to be, sales of mahogany 
and other fine hardwoods. Local manufacturing is 
on a comparatively limited scale. All cities and 
many towns have their artisans, the bakers, tailors, 
shoemakers, carpenters, and others. Cigar making is, 
of course, classed as a manufacturing enterprise, and 
so, for census purposes, is the conversion of the juice 
of the sugar-cane into sugar. A number of cities 
have breweries, ice factories, match factories, soap 
works, and other establishments large or small. All 
these, however, are incidental to the great industries 



VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES 235 

of the soil, and the greater part of Cuba's require- 
ments in the line of mill and factory products is 
imported. While little is done in the shipment of 
cattle or beef, Cuba is a natural cattle country. 
Water and nutritious grasses are abundant, and there 
are vast areas, now idle, that might well be utilized 
for stock-raising. There are, of course, just as there 
are elsewhere, various difficulties to be met, but they 
are met and overcome. There are insects and dis- 
eases, but these are controlled by properly applied 
scientific methods. There is open feeding throughout 
the entire year, so there is no need of barns or hay. 
The local cattle industry makes possible the ship- 
ment of some #2,500,000 worth of hides and skins 
annually. Other lines of industry worthy of mention, 
but not possible of detailed description here, include 
sponges, tortoise shell, honey, wax, molasses, and 
henequen or sisal. All these represent their individual 
thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and 
their employment of scores or hundreds of wage- 
earners. Those who start for Cuba with a notion 
that the Cubans are an idle and lazy people, will do 
well to revise that notion. There is not the hustle 
that may be seen further north, but the results of 
Cuban activity, measured in dollars or in tons, fairly 
dispute the notion of any national indolence. When 
two and a half million people produce what is 
produced in Cuba, somebody has to work. 



XIV 
POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, AND COMMERCE 



7 HE British colonists in America were in large 
measure self-governing. This is notably true 
,1 in their local affairs. The Spanish colonists 
were governed almost absolutely by the mother- 
country. A United States official publication re- 
ports that "all government control centred in the 
Council of the Indies and the King, and local self 
government, which was developed at an early stage 
in the English colonies, became practically impossible 
in the Spanish colonies, no matter to what extent 
it may have existed in theory. Special regulations, 
decrees, etc., modifying the application of the laws 
to the colonies or promulgating new laws were fre- 
quent, and their compilation in 1680 was published 
as Law of the Indies. This and the Siete Partidas, 
on which they were largely based, comprised the 
code under which the Spanish-American colonies 
were governed. " There was a paper provision, 
during the greater part of the time, for a municipal 
electorate, the franchise being limited to a few of 
the largest tax-payers. In its practical operation, the 
system was nullified by the power vested in the 
appointed ruler. It was a highly effective centralized 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 237 

organization in which no man held office, high or 
low, who was not a mere instrument in the hands 
of the Governor-General. Under such an institution 
the Cubans had, of course, absolutely no experience 
in self-government. The rulers made laws and 
the people obeyed them; they imposed taxes and 
spent the money as they saw fit; many of them 
enriched themselves and their personally appointed 
official household throughout the island, at the ex- 
pense of the tax-payers. 

A competent observer has noted that such terms 
as "meeting," "mass-meeting," "self-government," 
and "home-rule," had no equivalent in the Spanish 
language. The first of these terms, distorted into 
"mitin" is now in common use, and its origin is 
obvious. Of theories, ideals, and intellectual con- 
ceptions, there was an abundance, but government 
based on beautiful dreams does not succeed in this 
practical world. Denied opportunity for free dis- 
cussion of practical methods, the Cubans discussed 
theories in lyceums. Under the military government 
of the United States, from January 1, 1899, to May 
20, 1902, there was freedom of speech and freedom 
of organization. The Cubans began to hold "mitins," 
but visions and beautiful theories characterized the 
addresses. Prior to the Ten Years' War (1 868-1 878), 
there were organizations more or less political in 
their nature, but the authorities were alert in pre- 
venting discussions of too practical a character. In 
1865, a number of influential Cubans organized what 



238 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

has been somewhat inappropriately termed a "na- 
tional party." It was not at all a party in our use 
of that term. Its purpose was to suggest and urge 
administrative and economic changes from the 
Cuban point of view. The suggestions were ignored 
and, a few years later, revolution was adopted as 
a means of emphasizing their importance. The 
result of the Ten Years' War was an assortment of 
pledges of greater political and economic freedom. 
Much was promised but little if anything was really 
granted. There was, however, a relaxation of the 
earlier absolutism, and under that there appeared 
a semblance of party organization, in the form of a 
Liberal party and a Union Constitutional party. 
There was no special difference in what might be 
called their platforms. Both focussed, in a somewhat 
general way, the political aspirations and the economic 
desires of the Cuban people, much the same aspira- 
tions and desires that had been manifested by com- 
plaint, protest, and occasional outbreak, for fifty 
years. National independence had no place in either. 
That came later, when an army in the field declared 
that if Spain would not grant independence, the 
island would be made so worthless a possession that 
Spain could not afford to hold it. A few years after 
their organization, the Liberals became the Cuban 
party, and so remained, and the Union Constitutionals 
became the Spanish party, the party of the immedi- 
ate administration. Later on, the Liberal party 
became the Autonomist party, but Spain's concession 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 239 

of the demands of that group came too late, forced, 
not by the Autonomists but by the party of the 
Revolution that swept the island with fire and sword 
from Oriente to Pinar del Rio. The Autonomists 
sought what their name indicates; the Revolutionists 
demanded and secured national independence. 

Shortly before the final dispersion of the Army 
of the Revolution, there was organized a body with 
the imposing title of La Asamblea de Representantes 
del Ejercito Cubano, or the Assembly of Representa- 
tives of the Cuban Army. It was composed of 
leaders of the different military divisions of that 
army, and included, as I recall it, thirty-one members. 
This group made no little trouble in the early days 
of the American occupation. It gathered in Havana, 
held meetings, declared itself the duly chosen and 
representative agent of the Cuban people, and de- 
manded recognition as such by the American author- 
ities. Some of its members even asserted that it 
constituted a de faclo government, and held that the 
Americans should turn the whole affair over to them 
and promptly sail away. But their recognition was 
flatly refused by the authorities. At the time, I 
supported the authorities in this refusal, but after- 
ward I felt less sure of the wisdom of the course. 
As a recognized body, it might have been useful; 
rejected, it made no little trouble. Transfer of con- 
trol to its hands was quite out of the question, but 
recognition and co-operation might have proved 
helpful. That the body had a considerable repre- 



24 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

sentative quality, there is no doubt. Later, I found 
many of its members as members of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, and, still later, many of them 
have served in high official positions, as governors 
of provinces, members of Congress, in cabinet and 
in diplomatic positions. L am inclined to regard 
the group broadly, as the origin of the present much 
divided Liberal party that has, from the beginning 
of definite party organization, included a considerable 
numerical majority of the Cuban voters. In the 
first national election, held December 31, 1901, this 
group, the military group, appeared as the National 
party, supporting Tomas Estrada y Palma as its 
candidate. Its opponent was called the Republican 
party. Realizing its overwhelming defeat, the latter 
withdrew on the day of the election, alleging all 
manner of fraud and unfairness on the part of the 
Nationals. It is useless to follow in detail the history 
of Cuba's political parties since that time. In the 
election of 1905, the former National party appeared 
as the Liberal party, supporting Jose Miguel Gomez, 
while its opponents appeared as the Moderate party, 
supporting Estrada Palma who, first elected on what 
he declared to be a non-partisan basis, had definitely 
affiliated himself with the so-called Moderates. The 
election was a game of political crookedness on both 
sides, and the Liberals withdrew on election day. The 
result was the revolution of 1906. The Liberals split 
into factions, not yet harmonized, and the Moderate 
party became the Conservative party. By the fusion 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 241 

of some of the Liberal groups, that party carried the 
election of 1908, held under American auspices. A 
renewal of internal disorders, a quarrel among leaders, 
and much discontent with their administrative meth- 
ods, resulted in the defeat of the Liberals in the 
campaign of 191 2 and in the election of General 
Mario Menocal, the head of the Conservative ticket, 
and the present incumbent. 

A fair presentation of political conditions in Cuba 
is exceedingly difficult, or rather it is difficult so 
to present them that they will be fairly understood. 
I have always regarded the establishment of the 
Cuban Republic in 1902 as premature, though 
probably unavoidable. A few years of experience 
with an autonomous government under American 
auspices, civil and not military, as a prologue to full 
independence, might have been the wiser course, 
but such a plan seemed impossible. The Cubans 
in the field had forced from Spain concessions that 
were satisfactory to many. Whether they could 
have forced more than that, without the physical 
assistance given by the United States, is perhaps 
doubtful. The matter might have been determined 
by the grant of the belligerent rights for which they 
repeatedly appealed to the United States. At no 
time in the entire experience did they ask for inter- 
vention. That came as the result of a combination 
of American wrath and American sympathy, and 
more in the interest of the United States than because 
of concern for the Cubans. But, their victory won 



242 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

and Spain expelled, the triumphant Cubans naturally 
desired immediate enjoyment of the fruits of victory. 
They desired to exercise the independence for which 
they had fought. Many protests and not a few 
threats of trouble attended even the brief period 
of American occupation. There was, moreover, an 
acute political issue in the United States. The peace 
and order declared as the purpose of American in- 
tervention had been established. The amendment 
to the Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, disclaimed 
"any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, 
jurisdiction, or control over said Island except for 
the pacification thereof," etc. The island was paci- 
fied. The amendment asserted, further, the determi- 
nation of the United States, pacification having been 
accomplished, "to leave the government and control 
of the island to its people." There was no pledge 
of any prolonged course of education in principles 
and methods of self-government. Nor did such edu- 
cation play any appreciable part in the experience 
of the American military government. The work 
of the interventors had been done in accordance 
with the specifications, and the Cubans were increas- 
ingly restless under a control that many of them, 
with no little reason, declared to be as autocratic 
as any ever exercised by Spain. Transfer and de- 
parture seemed to be the politic if not the only 
course, and we transferred and departed. 

That these people, entirely without experience 
or training in self-government, should make mistakes 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 243 

was quite as inevitable as it is that a child in learning 
to walk will tumble down and bump its little nose. 
In addition to the inevitable mistakes, there have 
been occasional instances of deplorable misconduct 
on the part of individuals and of political parties. 
For neither mistakes nor misconduct can we criticize 
or condemn them without a similar criticism or con- 
demnation of various experiences in our own history. 
We should, at least, regard them with charity. 
There are, moreover, incidents in the two experiences 
of American control of the island that, at least, 
border on the unwise and the discreditable. The 
only issue yet developed in Cuba is between good 
government and bad politics. The first President 
started admirably along the line of the former, and 
ended in a wretched tangle of the latter, though 
not at all by his own choice or direction. Official 
pre-eminence and a "government job" make quite 
the same appeal to the Cubans that they do to many 
thousands of Americans. So do raids on the national 
treasury, and profitable concessions. We see these 
motes in Cuban eyes somewhat more clearly than 
we see the beams in our own eyes. A necessarily 
slow process of political education is going on among 
the people, but in the meantime the situation has 
afforded opportunity for exploitation by an assort- 
ment of self-constituted political leaders who have 
adopted politics as a profession and a means of 
livelihood. Cuba's gravest danger lies in the political 
domination of men in this class. The present Presi- 



244 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

dent, General Mario Menocal, is not in that group. 
The office sought him; he did not seek the office. 
Some of these self-constituted leaders have displayed 
a notable aptitude for political organization, and it 
is largely by means of the many little local organ- 
izations that the Cuban political game is played. 
Although, I believe, somewhat less now than formerly, 
the little groups follow and support individual leaders 
rather than parties or principles. Parties and their 
minor divisions are known by the names of their 
leaders. Thus, while both men are nominally of 
the same party, the Liberal, the adherents of Jose 
Miguel Gomez, are known as Miguelistas, and the 
adherents of Alfredo Zayas are known as Zayistas. 
Were either to announce himself as a Conserva- 
tive, or to start a new party and call it Reformist 
or Progressive or any other title, he could count 
on being followed by most of those who sup- 
ported him as a Liberal. This is a condition that 
will, in time, correct itself. What the Cuban really 
wants is what all people want, an orderly, honest, 
and economical government, under which he may live 
in peace and quiet, enjoying the fruits of his labor 
without paying an undue share of the fruits to main- 
tain his government. For that the Cuban people 
took up arms against Spain. For a time they may 
be blinded by the idea of mere political independence, 
but to that same issue they will yet return by the 
route of the ballot-box. The game of politics for 
individual preferment, or for personal profit, cannot 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 245 

long be successfully played in Cuba, if I have 
rightly interpreted Cuban character and Cuban 
characteristics. 

"We, the delegates of the people of Cuba, having 
met in constitutional convention for the purpose of 
preparing and adopting the fundamental law of their 
organization as an independent and sovereign people, 
establishing a government capable of fulfilling its 
international obligations, maintaining public peace, 
ensuring liberty, justice, and promoting the general 
welfare, do hereby agree upon and adopt the follow- 
ing constitution, invoking the protection of the 
Almighty. Article I. The people of Cuba are hereby 
constituted a sovereign and independent State and 
adopt a republican form of government." Thus 
opens the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. 

I recall an intensely dramatic moment connected 
with the closing phrase of the preamble. I have 
used a translation published by a distinguished 
Cuban. That phrase, in the original, is " invocando 
el favor de Dios" perhaps more exactly translated 
as "invoking the favor (or blessing) of God." When 
the Constitution had been drafted and broadly ap- 
proved, it was submitted to the convention for 
suggestion of minor changes in verbiage. One of 
the oldest and most distinguished members of the 
body proposed that this phrase be left out. Another 
member, distinguished for his power as an orator 
and for his cynicism, in a speech of considerable 
length set forth his opinion that it made little differ- 



246 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

ence whether it was included or excluded. There 
was no benefit in its inclusion, and no advantage in 
excluding it. It would hurt none and might please 
some to have it left in. Immediately across the 
semi-circle of desks, and facing these two speakers, 
sat Sefior Pedro Llorente, a man of small stature, 
long, snow-white hair and beard, and a nervous and 
alert manner. At times, his nervous energy made 
him almost grotesque. At times, his absorbed earn- 
estness made him, despite his stature, a figure of com- 
manding dignity. Through the preceding addresses 
he waited with evident impatience. Obtaining recog- 
nition from the chairman, he rose and stood with 
upraised hand, his voice tremulous with emotion, to 
protest against the proposed measure, declaring "as 
one not far from the close of life, that the body 
there assembled did not represent an atheistic 
people." The motion to strike out was lost, and 
the invocation remains. 

The result of the deliberations of the Constitutional 
Convention is a highly creditable instrument. It 
contains a well-devised Bill of Rights, and makes 
all necessary provision for governmental organiza- 
tion and conduct. One feature, however, seems open 
to criticism. In their desire to avoid that form of 
centralized control, of which they had somewhat too 
much under Spanish power, the new institution 
provides, perhaps, for too much local government, 
for a too extensive provincial and municipal system. 
It has already fallen down in some respedls, and it 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 247 

has become necessary to centralize certain functions, 
quite as it has become desirable in several of our 
own matters. Cuba has, perhaps, an undue overload 
of officialdom, somewhat too many public officers, 
and quite too many people on its pay-rolls. The 
feature of Cuba's Constitution that is of greatest 
interest and importance to the United States is what 
is known as the Piatt Amendment. The provision 
for a Constitutional Convention in Cuba was made 
in what was known as Civil Order No. 301, issued 
by the Military Governor, on July 25, 1900. It 
provided for an election of delegates to meet in 
Havana on the first Monday in November, following. 
The convention wus to frame and adopt a Constitu- 
tion and "as a part thereof, to provide for and 
agree with the Government of the United States upon 
the relations to exist between that Government and 
the Government of Cuba," etc. Against this, the 
Cubans protested vigorously. The United States 
had declared that "Cuba is and of right ought to 
be free and independent. " The Cubans held, very 
properly, that definition of international relations had 
no fitting place in a Constitution "as a part thereof." 
Their point was recognized and, under date of Novem- 
ber 5, Civil Order No. 310 was modified by Civil 
Order No. 455. That was issued to the delegates 
at the time of their assembly. It declared as follows : 
"It will be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a 
Constitution for Cuba, and, when that has been 
done, to formulate what, in your opinion, ought 



248 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

to be the relations between Cuba and the United 
States." Taking this as their programme, the dele- 
gates proceeded to draft a Constitution, leaving the 
matter of "relations" in abeyance for consideration 
at the proper time. Yet, before its work was done, 
the Convention was savagely criticized in the United 
States for its failure to include in the Constitution 
what it had been authorized, and virtually instructed, 
to leave out. The Constitution was completed on 
February II, 1901, and was duly signed by the 
delegates, on February 21. A committee was ap- 
pointed, on February 11, to prepare and submit 
plans and proposals regarding the matter of "rela- 
tions." Prior to that, however, the matter had been 
frequently but informally discussed by the delegates. 
Suggestions had been made in the local press, and 
individual members of the Convention had expressed 
their views with considerable freedom. Had the 
United States kept its hands off at that time, a serious 
and critical situation, as well as a sense of injustice 
that has not yet entirely died out, would have been 
averted. 

Before the Cubans had time to put their "opinion 
of what ought to be the relations" between the two 
countries into definite form, there was presented to 
them, in a manner as needless as it was tactless, a 
statement of what the American authorities thought 
those relations should be. The Cubans, who were 
faithfully observing their earlier instructions, were 
deeply offended by this interference, and by the 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 249 

way in which the interference came. The measure 
known as the Piatt Amendment was submitted to 
the United States Senate, as an amendment to the 
Army Appropriation bill, on February 25, 1901. 
The Senate passed the bill, and the House concurred. 
A storm of indignant protest swept over the island. 
The Cubans believed, and not without reason, that 
the instrument abridged the independence of which 
they had been assured by those who now sought to 
limit that independence. Public opinion in the United 
States was divided. Some approved and some 
denounced the proceeding in bitter terms. The 
division was not at all on party lines. The situation 
in Cuba was entirely changed. Instead of formulat- 
ing an opinion in accordance with their earlier in- 
structions, the members of the Convention were 
confronted by a choice of what they then regarded 
as evils, acceptance of unacceptable terms or an in- 
definite continuance of a military government then 
no less unacceptable. A commission was sent to 
Washington to urge changes and modifications. It 
was given dinners, lunches, and receptions, but 
nothing more. At last the Cubans shrugged their 
shoulders. The desire for an immediate withdrawal 
of American authority, and for Cuban assumption 
of the reins of government, outweighed the objection 
to the terms imposed. A Cuban leader said: "There 
is no use in objecting to the inevitable. It is either 
annexation or a Republic with the Amendment. I 
prefer the latter." After four months of stubborn 



25 o CUBA OLD AND NEW 

opposition, the Cubans yielded, by a vote of sixteen 
to eleven, with four absentees. 

In many ways, the Cuban Government is like our 
own. The President and Vice-President are elected, 
through an electoral college, for a term of four years. 
A "third term" is specifically prohibited by the Con- 
stitution. Senators, four from each Province, are 
chosen, for a term of eight years, by an electoral board. 
Elections for one half of the body occur every four 
years. The House is chosen, by direct vote, for terms 
of four years, one half being elected every two years. 
The Cabinet, selected and appointed by the President, 
consists of eight Secretaries of Departments as 
follows: Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor; State; 
Government; Treasury {Hacienda); Public Instruc- 
tion; Justice; Public Works; and Health and 
Charities. There is a Supreme Court, and there 
are the usual minor courts. The Constitution also 
makes provision for the organization and the powers of 
the Provincial and Municipal Governments. To the 
Constitution, the Piatt Amendment is attached as an 
appendix, by treaty arrangement. As far as govern- 
mental system is concerned, Cuba is fairly well 
equipped; a possible source of danger is its over- 
equipment. Its laws permit, rather than require, 
an overburden of officials, high and low. But Cuba's 
governmental problem is essentially one of adminis- 
tration. Its particular obstacle in that department 
is professional politics. 

The whole situation in Cuba is somewhat peculiar. 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 251 

The business of the island, that is, the commercial 
business, the purchase and sale of merchandise 
wholesale and retail, is almost entirely in the hands 
of Spaniards. The Cuban youths seldom become 
clerks in stores. Most of the so-called " depend- 
ientes" come out as boys from Spain. It is an old 
established system. These lads, almost invariably 
hard workers, usually eat and sleep in the place of 
their employment. The wage is small but board 
and lodging, such as the latter is, are furnished. 
They are well fed, and the whole system is quite 
paternal. For their recreation, education, and care in 
case of illness, there are organizations, half club and 
half mutual protective association, to which practically 
all belong. The fee is small and the benefits many. 
Some of these are based on a regional plan, that 
is, the Centro de Asturianos is composed of those who 
come from the Spanish province of Asturia, and those 
from other regions have their societies. There is 
also a general society of " dependientes." Some of 
these groups are rich, with large membership includ- 
ing not only the clerks of today but those of the last 
thirty or forty years, men who by diligence and 
thrift have risen to the top in Cuba's commercial 
life. Most of Cuba's business men continue their 
membership in these organizations, and many 
contribute liberally toward their maintenance. 

This system more or less effectively bars Cuban 
youths from commercial life. Nor does commercial 
life seem attractive to more than a very limited 



252 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

number. This leaves to them, practically, only 
three lines of possible activity, the ownership and 
operation of a plantation, a profession, or manual 
labor. The greater number there, as elsewhere, are 
laborers, either on some little bit of ground they call 
their own or rent from its owner, or they are employed 
by the proprietors of the larger estates. Such pro- 
prietorship is, of course, open to only a few. The 
problem, which is both social and political, appears 
in a class that cannot or will not engage in manual 
labor, the well-educated or fairly-educated sons of 
men of fair income and a social position. Many of 
these take some professional course. But there is 
not room for so many in so small a country, and 
the professions are greatly overcrowded. The surplus 
either loafs and lives by its wits or at the expense of 
the family, or turns to the Government for a "job." 
It constitutes a considerable element on which the 
aspiring professional politician can draw for support. 
Having such "jobs," it constitutes a heavy burden on 
the tax-payers; deprived of its places on the Govern- 
ment pay-roll, it becomes a social and political 
menace. If a Liberal administration throws them out 
of their comfortable posts, they become noisy and 
perhaps violent Conservatives; if discharged by an 
economical Conservative administration, they become 
no less noisy and no less potentially violent Liberals. 
But we may not criticize. The American control 
that followed the insurrection of 1906 set no example 
in administrative economy for the Cubans to follow. 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 253 

The productive industries of the island have already 
been reviewed in other chapters. The development 
of Cuba's commerce since the withdrawal of Spain, 
and the substitution of a modern fiscal policy for an 
antiquated and indefensible system, has been notable. 
It is, however, a mistake to contrast the present 
condition with the condition existing at the time of 
the American occupation, in 1899. The exadl ac- 
curacy of the record is questionable, but the returns 
for the year 1894, the year preceding the revolution, 
show the total imports of the island as #77,000,000, 
and the total exports as #99,000,000. The probabil- 
ity is that a proper valuation would show a consid- 
erable advance in the value of the imports. The 
statement of export values may be accepted. It 
may be assumed that had there been no disorder, 
the trade of the island, by natural growth, would 
have reached #90,000,000 for imports and #120,000,- 
000, for exports, in 1900. That may be regarded as 
a fair normal. As it was, the imports of that year 
were #72,000,000, and the exports, by reason of the 
general wreck of the sugar business, were only 
#45,000,000. With peace and order fairly assured, 
recovery came quickly. The exports of 1905, at 
#99,000,000, equalled those of 1894, while the im- 
ports materially exceeded those of the earlier year. 
In 1913, the exports reached #165,207,000, and the 
imports #132,290,000. This growth of Cuba's com- 
merce and industry is due mainly to the economic 
requirements of the American people. We need 



254 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

Cuba's sugar and we want its tobacco. These two 
commodities represent about 90 per cent, of the 
total exports of the island. We buy nearly all of its 
sugar, under normal conditions, and about 60 per 
cent, of its tobacco and cigars. On the basis of the 
total commerce of the island, the records of recent 
years show this country as the source of supply for 
about 53 per cent, of Cuba's total imports, and as the 
market for about 83 per cent, of its exports. A com- 
parison of the years 1903 and 191 3 shows a gain of 
about #87,000,000 in Cuba's total exports. Of this, 
about #75,000,000 is represented by sugar. The 
crop of 1894 a little exceeded a million tons. Such a 
quantity was not again produced until 1903. With 
yearly variations, due to weather conditions, later 
years show an enormous and unprecedented in- 
crease. The crops of 1913 and 1914 were, approx- 
imately, 2,500,000 tons each. The tobacco industry 
shows only a modest gain. The average value of 
the exports of that commodity has risen, in ten 
years, from about #25,000,000 to about #30,000,000. 
The increase in the industry appears largely in the 
shipment of leaf tobacco. The cigar business shows 
practically no change, in that time, as far as values 
are concerned. This resume affords a fair idea of 
Cuba's trade expansion under the conditions estab- 
lished through the change in government. That 
event opened new and larger doors of opportunity, 
and the Cubans and others have been prompt in 
taking advantage of them. Toward the great increase 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 255 

shown, two forces have operated effectively. One is 
the treaty by which the provisions of the so-called 
Piatt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution are 
made permanently effective. The other is the 
reciprocity treaty of 1903. 

By the operation of the former of these instruments 
the United States virtually underwrites the political 
stability and the financial responsibility of the Cuban 
Government. That Government cannot borrow any 
important sums without the consent of the United 
States, and it has agreed that this country "may 
exercise the right to intervene for the preservation 
of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a govern- 
ment adequate for the protection of life, property, 
and individual liberty, and for discharging the 
obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the 
Treaty of Paris on the United States." This assump- 
tion of responsibility by the United States inspired 
confidence on the part of capital, and large sums 
have been invested in Cuban bonds, and in numerous 
public and private enterprises. Railways and trolley 
lines have been built and many other works of public 
utility have been undertaken. The activities of old 
sugar plantations have been extended under improved 
conditions, and many new estates with costly modern 
equipment have been created. The cultivation of 
large areas, previously lying waste and idle, afforded 
both directly and indirectly employment for an 
increased population, as did the numerous public 
works. The other force, perhaps no less effective, 



256 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

appears in the reciprocity treaty of 1903. This gave 
to Cuba's most important crop a large though by 
no means absolute control of the constantly increasing 
sugar market of the United States, as far as competi- 
tion from other foreign countries was concerned. The 
sugar industry of the island may be said to have 
been restored to its normal proportions in 1903. Our 
imports for the five-year period 1 904-1 908 averaged 
1,200,000 tons a year. For the five-year period 
1910-1914 they averaged 1,720,000 tons. In 1914, 
they were 2,200,000 tons as compared with 1,260,000 
tons in 1904. It is doubtful if the treaty had any 
appreciable influence on the exports of Cuban 
tobacco to this country. We buy Cuba's special 
tobacco irrespective of a custom-house advantage 
that affects the box price only a little, and the price 
of a single cigar probably not at all. On the other 
side of the account, that of our sales to Cuba, there 
also appears a large increase since the application of 
the reciprocity treaty. Using the figures showing 
exports from the United States to Cuba, instead of 
Cuba's records showing imports from this country, 
it appears that our sales to the island in the fiscal 
year 1903, immediately preceding the operation of 
the treaty, amounted to #21,761,638. In the fiscal 
year 1913 they were #70,581,000, and in 1914 were 
#68,884,000. 

Not all of this quite remarkable gain may properly 
be credited to the influence of the reciprocity treaty. 
The purchases of the island are determined, broadly, 



POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE 257 

by its sales. As the latter increase, so do the former. 
Almost invariably, a year of large export sales is 
followed by a year of heavy import purchases. The 
fact that our imports from Cuba are double our sales 
to Cuba, in the total of a period of years, has given 
rise to some foolish criticism of the Cubans on the 
ground that, we buying so heavily from them, they 
should purchase from us a much larger percentage 
of their import requirements. No such obligation is 
held to exist in regard to our trade with other lands, 
and it should have no place in any consideration of 
our trade with Cuba. There are many markets, 
like Brazil, British India, Japan, China, Mexico, and 
Egypt, in which our purchases exceed our sales. 
There are more, like the United Kingdom, France, 
Germany, Italy, Canada, Central America, and 
numerous others, in which our sales considerably or 
greatly exceed our purchases. We do not buy from 
them simply because they buy from us. We buy 
what we need or want in that market in which we 
can buy to the greatest advantage. The Cuban 
merchants, who are nearly all Spaniards, do the 
same. The notion held by some that, because of our 
service to Cuba in the time of her struggle for na- 
tional life, the Cubans should buy from us is both 
foolish and altogether unworthy. Any notion of 
Cuba's obligation to pay us for what we may have 
done for her should be promptly dismissed and 
forgotten. There are commodities, such as lumber, 
pork products, coal, wheat flour, and mineral oil 



258 CUBA OLD AND NEW 

produces, that Cuba can buy in our markets on 
terms better than those obtainable elsewhere. Other 
commodities, such as textiles, leather goods, sugar 
mill equipment, railway equipment, drugs, chemicals, 
and much else, must be sold by American dealers 
in sharp competition with the merchants of other 
countries, with such assistance as may be afforded 
by the reciprocity treaty. That instrument gives 
us a custom-house advantage of 20, 25, 30, and 40 
per cent, in the tariff rates. It is enough in some 
cases to give us a fair equality with European sellers, 
and in a few cases to give us a narrow margin of 
advantage over them. It does not give us enough 
to compel Cuban buyers to trade with us because 
of lower delivered prices. 

Cuba's economic future can be safely predicted on 
the basis of its past. The pace of its development 
will depend mainly upon a further influx of capital 
and an increase in its working population. Its 
political future is less certain. There is ample ground 
for both hope and belief that the little clouds that 
hang on the political horizon will be dissipated, that 
there will come, year by year, a sane adjustment to 
the new institutions. But full assurance of peace 
and order will come only when the people of the 
island, whether planters or peasants, see clearly the 
difference between a government conducted in their 
interest and a government conducted by Cubans 
along Spanish lines. 



INDEX 



Adams, President J6hn, 127 
Angulo, Governor de, 59 
Animals, wild, 50 
Asphalt, 232, 233 
Autonomy, 143, 178 

B 

Babeque, 6, 7 

Bacon, Hon. Robert, 160 

Bacon's Rebellion, 144 

Ballou, M. M., 31, 32, 71 

Banes, 113 

Baracoa, 12, 91, 100, 114 

Batabano, 12, 116 

Baths, 52 

Bellamar, Caves of, 42, no 

Belligerent rights, 136, 140, 157, 

158, 181 
Bermuda, 189, 197 
Bertram, Luis, 14 

Betancourt, Salvador Cisneros, 174 
Black Eagle conspiracy, 147 
Black Warrior, 131 
Blanco, General Ramon, 178 
Bolivia, 126 

Bolivar, Simon, 124, 185 
Bonds, Cuban, 175 
Boston sugar plantation, 113 
Buchanan, President, 130 



Cabana, 57, 60 
Cabinet, Cuban, 250 



Cabrera, Raimundo, 135 

Cadiz, 20 

Caibarien, 102 

Callahan, James M., 125, 139, 152 

Camaguey, city, 105, no, in 

Camaguey, province, 40, 109 

Cardenas, 101 

Casa de Beneficencia, 24 

Castillo del Principe, 57, 60, 71, 83 

Cathay, 3 

Cathedral, Havana, 63 

Cattle, 17, 235 

Cauto river, 43 

Caves, 42 

Cemetery, Colon, 83 

Census Reports, United States, 27, 

35, 44, 144, 236 
Cespedes, Carlos Manuel, 154, 155 
Channing, Edward, 142, 143 
Chaparra sugar plantation, 113 
Ciego de Avila, 106 
Cienaga de Zapata, 43, 51 
Cienfuegos, 102 
Cigars, 224, 225, 254 
Cipango, 2, 5 
Clerks' Associations, 251 
Climate, 45 et seq. 
Coal, 232 

Coffee, 23, 36, 226, et seq. 
Colonies, American in Cuba, 12, 

120 
Colonies, British, 19, 236 
Colonies, Spanish, 19, 21, 123, 126 
Columbia, 124, 145 



260 



INDEX 



Columbus, Christopher 

Death and remains, 63 

Describes Cuba, 3, 4, 7 

Discovers Cuba, 2 

Extract from journal, 2 

Letter to Sanchez, 3 

Memorial to, 64 

Mistaken belief, 2, 3, 5, 8 

Report to Spanish sovereigns, 7 

Second expedition, 7 
Commerce, 21, 22, 35, 36, 156, 253, 

254> 257 

Commodore, 193, 195, 197 

Constitutional Convention, 247 

Constitution, Cuban, 154, 245, 246 

Constitution, Spanish, 29, 145, 159 

Copper, 231, 232 

Cordoba, de, 12 

Cortes, Hernan, 13, 58 

Cortes, Spanish, 29, 176 

Crittenden, Col., 150 

Cuba: 

Aborigines, 14, 15. Advice to 
visitors, 55. American attitude 
toward, 135, 137, 140. Annexa- 
tion proposed, 125 et seq. Ani- 
mals, wild, 49. Area, 37. Cli- 
mate and temperature, 45 et seq 
Colonized, 12. Commerce, 21 
22, 35> 36, 156, 253, 254, 257 
Conquest by Velasquez, II. De- 
scribed by Columbus, 3, 4, 7 
Description, general, 37 et seq, 
Discovered, 2. Expeditions from 
13, 14. Flora, 48. Forests, 49 
Future of, 258. Insects, 51 
Intervention by United States, 
25, 160, 182, 242. Mineral 
springs, 52. Monopolies in, 20, 
144, 220, 231. Monroe Doctrine, 
127. Nineteenth Century, 142 
Population, 17, 23, 34. Railways 



89, 91. Relations with United 
States, 122 et seq., 247, 248. 
Republic of, 182. Revolutions, 
141 et seq. Roads, 87, 95, 96. 
Self-government, 243. Slavery in, 
15, 16, 23, 125, 145, 155. Span- 
ish Governors, 24, 32. Span- 
ish policy in, 17, 19 <f* seq. 24, 31. 
Trade restrictions, 20, 21, 24, 25, 
30. Taxation, Spanish, 24, 27, 
28, 30. Villages, 85, 93, 94, 
100 

Cuba and the Intervention, 154, 164 

Cushing, Caleb, 138 

Custom house, 62 



Dauntless, 193, 194, 197, 199, 2cx> 
Delicias sugar plantation, 113 
Dexter, Lord Timothy, 216 
Domestic life, 80 



Earthquakes, 53 
Elections, 240, 250 
Elson, Henry William, 186 
England, 19, 128, 130, 139, 145 
Everett, Alexander H., 130 



Filibustering expeditions, 148 et 

seq., 184 et seq. 
Firemen, 83 
Fish, Secretary, 157 
Flora, 48 
Florida, 13 
Forests, 48, 49 
Fortifications, 59, 60 
France, 128, 145 
Fritot, Alphonso, 196, 199 
Fruits, 5, 229 
Fuerza, la, 17, 58, 59 



INDEX 



261 



Garcia, General Calixto, 84, 190 

Geerligs, H. C. Prinsen, 206 

Gibara, 112 

Gold, 2, 6, 23 1 

Gomez, General Maximo, 84, 158, 
164, 172, 174. Proclamations, 
167 et seq. 

Government, 250 

Grant, President, 135 et seq. 

Guane, 101 

Guantanamo, 91, 115 

Guines, 90 

H 

Haiti, 9, 10, 144 

Harbors, 44 

Hart, John D., 191, 197 

Hatuey, 8 et seq. 

Havana: 

Bells, church, 65. British occu- 
pation, 20. Capital, 20, 59. 
Cathedral, 63. Changes in, 66, 
67, 82, 85. Commerce limited 
to, 20. Destroyed, 17, 58, 59. 
Discovered, 12, 57. Early condi- 
tions, 61. Excursions from, 97 
et seq. Firemen, 83. Fortifica- 
tions, 59, 60. Homes in, 77 et 
seq. Las Casas as governor, 24. 
Market, fish, 74. Name, origin 
of, 58. New City, 70 et seq. 
Old city, 54 et seq. Parks, 70, 71. 
PaseOy 75. Public buildings, 62 
etseq. Sanitation of, 63. Settled 
12, 58. Shopping in, 68. Streets 
61, 71. Suburbs, 85. Sunrise 
in harbor, 54. Theatre, Nacional, 
71 et seq. 

Havana, province, 38, 41 

Hayes, President, 136 

Hazard, Samuel, 33, 65, in 

Henry, Patrick, 143 



Heredia, Jose Maria, 146 

Hill, Robert T., 39, 48 

Holguin, 113 

Hotels, 91, in 

Homes, 77 et seq. 

Humboldt, Baron Alexander, 8, 14, 

I5> 16, 35, 53 
Hurricanes, 53 

I 
Imports and Exports, 253, 256 
Independence, 162 et seq. 
Insecl: life, 51 

Intervention, First, 25, 182, 242 
Intervention, Second, 160 
Iron ore, 233, 234 
Irving, Washington, 4, 5, 6 
Isle of Pines, 8, 116, 117 et seq. 

J 

Jefferson, Thomas, 122 

Joint Resolution of 1898, 242 

Jolo, 54 

Juana, 2, 4 

Jucaro, 106 

Junta, 164, 174, 188 



Kimball, R. B. 32 



Las Casas, Bartolome, 9, 14 
Las Casas, Governor Luis de, 24 
Laurada, 193 et seq. 
Lemus, Jose Francisco, 146 
Llorente, Pedro, 246 
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 123 
Lopez, Narciso, 148 et seq. 
Ludlow, General William, 63 

M 
Maceo, General Antonio, 99, 164, 

172, 174 
McKinley, President, 122, 178, 179 



262 



INDEX 



Magoon, Charles E., 160 
Maine, battleship, 179 
Maisi, Cape, 7, 8, 38, 115 
Malecon, 75 
Manufactures, 234 
Marti, Jose, 164, 166 
Marti, the smuggler, 72 et seq. 
Martinez Campos, General, 158, 

165, 166, 177. 
Maso, Bartolome, 165, 174 
Massachusetts rebellion, 144 
Matanzas, city, 41, 101 
Matanzas, province, 41 
Menocal, General Mario, 241, 244 
Mexico, 13, 58, 124, 145 
Minerals, 23 1 et seq 
Mineral springs, 52 
Miranda, Francisco, 126, 185 
Monopolies, 20, 144, 220, 231. 
Monroe Doctrine, 127 
Monroe, President, 129 
Monuments: 

Firemen's, 83, 84 

Students', 84 
Moret law, 16 
Morgan, Henry, no 
Morro Castle, 17, 57, 59, 60 
Mountains, 5, 41, 93 
Murielo, 13 

N 
Narvaez, 13 

Navigation acts, British, 19, 144 
Nelson, Hugh, 127 
Nipe Bay, 2, 91, 113, 114 
Nuevitas, 2, 3, no, in, 112 
Nunez, General Emilio, 191, 192, 

199 

O 
O'Brien, "Dynamite Johnny," 189 

et seq. 
Ocampo, Sebastian de, 8, 12, 57 
Oriente, province, 40, 41 



Ostend Manifesto, 133 
Otis, James, 143 



Palace, Governor's, 64 

Palma, Tomas Estrada y, 162, 174, 

192 
Palms, 5, 7, 48, 49 
Panama Congress (1826), 126 
Parks, Havana, 70, 71 
Parties, Political, 159, 176, 237, 

238, 240, 244 
Pearcy v. Stranahan, 120 
Pepper, Charles M., 105, 134, 152, 

176 
Petroleum, 233 

Pierce, President, 130, 132, 151 
Pinar del Rio, city, 101 
Pinar del Rio, province, 41 
Piatt Amendment, 118, 247 et seq. y 

255 
Politics, 252 
Polk, President, 130 
Ponce de Leon, 13 
Population, 14, 17, 23, 34 
Porto Rico, 118 
Prado, 71, 75 

Preston sugar plantation, 113 
Puerto de Carenas, 12, 57 
Puerto Principe, see Camaguey 
Punta, la, 17 

Q 

Quitman expedition, 151 



Railways, 89, 91 

Rainfall, 46 

Real estate speculation, 120 

Reciprocity treaty, 255, 258 

Reconcentration, 177 

" Relations," question of, 247, 248 

Remedios, 102 



INDEX 



263 



Revolutions, 19, 141 et seq. 

of 1868, 153 et seq. 

of 1895, 162 et seq. 

of 1906, 159, 160 
Rhodes, James Ford, 131 
Rivers, 43 44 
Roads, 87, 95, 96 
Rubens, Horatio, S., 165, 181, 191, 

192, 195 
Ruskin, John, 56 



Saco, Antonio, 31 

Sagua la Grande, 101 

Sanchez, Rafael, 3 

Sancti Spiritus, 12, 91, 104 

Santa Clara, city, 102 

Santa Clara, province, 40 

Santangel, Luis de, 4 

Santiago de Cuba, 12, 13, 20, 115, 

116 
Santo Domingo, 7 
Seville, 20 

Slavery, 15, 16, 23, 125, 145, 155 
Smuggling, 21, 26 
Snakes, 50 

Sociedad Economica, 24 
Sociedad Patriotica, 24 
Soles de Bolivar, 146 
Soto, Hernando de, 13, 14, 17, 58 
Soule, Pierre, 132, 133 
Spain, 17, 19, 24, 29, 123 et seq., 145, 

236 
Spanish-American independence, 126 
Sugar, 113, 203 et seq. 

Beet sugar, 208 

Countries producing, 209 

History, 207 

In Cuba, 210 

Manufacture of, 204, 213 

Muscovado, 205 

Origin of, 206 



Planting and cutting, 213 et seq. 
Production of, 209, 254, 256 
Supreme Court, United States, 120 



Tacon, Governor Miguel, 32, 33, 

70, 71 et seq. 
Taft, Hon. William H., 99, 160 
Tariff, Spanish, 21, 25 
Taxes, 24, 27, 30, 163 
Taylor, President, 148 
Teller Amendment, 182 
Temperance question, 76 
Temperature, 45 et seq. 
Templete, el, 64 
Ten Years' War, 16, 134, 135 et seq.., 

153 et seq. 
Thrasher, J. S., 15, 29 
Three Friends, 193 et seq. 
Tillie, wreck of the, 210 
Times, New York, 150 
Tobacco, 36, 102, 221, 222 

Cultivation in Cuba, 223 

History, 219 et seq. 

Origin, 218 

Use in Cuba, 225 
Trade restricted, 20, 24, 25, 30 
Transportation, 90 
Treaty of Paris, 118, 182 
Trinidad, 12, 91, 100, 103 
Turnbull, David, 25 

U 

United States: 

Diplomatic correspondence, 125 

et seq. 
Mediation offered, 156 
Presidential messages, 125, 135, 

136, 137, 158, 178, 179, 180, 

184 
Relations with Cuba, 122 et seq. y 

179 



264 



INDEX 



Valmaseda proclamation, 156 

Varona, Enrique Jose, 153 

Vedado, el, 82 

Vegetable products, 228 et seq. 

Velasquez, 8, 58 

Villages, 85, 93 

Virginius affair, 116, 137, 185 

Volantes, 88 



W 
Welles, Gideon, 186 
Weyler, General Valeriano, 177, 198 
Wilson, Henry, 125 

Y 

Yumuri valley, 41 

Z 

Zanjon, treaty of, 158 



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